Today, things are looking up, not quite to the point of getting really excited for some massive progress, but at least my reading is moving in the right direction.

Today’s total is currently 82 pages, a big step up from yesterday’s measly 13 pages. This moves my total for the month of March to 4,482 pages, representing almost 82% of the projected quota, just about where I wanted to be for the last week of the month.

This couldn’t come in a better time, for tomorrow is the first major event, at least for yours truly, of 2023. I’m, of course, talking about Tolkien Reading Day, which celebrates one of the most important writers of the past century, professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

This day was proposed because, according to the timeline of the Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and Sam, in the year 3019 of the Third Age, reached the Crack of Doom, birthplace of the dreaded One Ring, and finally vanquished Lord Sauron for good. So, since 2003, this has been the day to reminisce on the huge literary legacy that the professor created.

From my part, I’ll dedicate the day to start reading the first book of the series History of Middle Earth, dubbed The Book of Lost Tales Part One, and continue with a week long marathon, which will include some fantasy works influenced by The Lord of the Rings and as an added bonus, I’ll sit thru the film adaption, which I have seen probably about a 100 times, in their glorious extended edition.

Off to read.

And remember

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

Another slow day of reading, right now my total sits at 48 pages, and with the day in its last straw, I don’t see that number going up that much, but you never know.

Still, there’s always a bright spot on the day. For example, my total for Match sits now at 4,358 pages, close to 80% of the monthly quota, that’s only 1,160 pages left to reach the projected total. The other thing is that going thru my digital comic collection, I found a Black Panther series written by the amazingly talented Nnedi Okorafor.

For those not familiar with her work, she has an excellent sci-fi series,Binti, following her journey as the first member of her tribe to be accepted to the very prestigious intergalactic university Oomza Uni. The first volume of the series won the prestigious Hugo and Nebula Awards for the best novella in 2016.

In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be delving into a lot of series involving King T’Challa or his immediate universe. This particular collection of digital comic books became available for free to commemorate the untimely and traffic passing of actor Chadwick Boseman, who gave life in such an amazing and regal way to such a powerful character.

For now, I’ll maybe squeeze in another adventure in the kingdom of Wakanda, or maybe go and navigate some treacherous seas in a sentient ship.

Off to read.

azr

I’m finding it really difficult to get back to the magnificent reading pace that kicked off this illustrious month. Today’s current total is the evidence of my struggle. The day is about to end, and my total is only 117, alas, this will not become the measure nor the rhythm that will define my reading going forward, I’ll make sure of it.

What gives me a little bit of calmness is that my total for the month is still ahead of schedule, sitting comfortably at 4,247 pages, a little over 75% of the total quota, giving me only 1,271 left on the month projection, and opening a really good possibility to chip away some of those pesky surplus pages from past weeks.

Part of why my day has not been so productive, reading wise, of course, is in part of the really hectic schedule that the day after a holiday presents, but mostly is because I’m trying out a new approach to how I schedule my reading sessions around my work and also how my analog tracking becomes more simple to maintain but keeping it expressive and concise. All of this takes time and, more importantly, patience. At least there was an opportunity to sit outside, catch some sun, and watch how everything is begging to awake from their slumber.

To close out the day, I’m torn between one final session of Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic or continue with H.P. Lovecraft’s collection. I’ll probably let a D20 decide. The only thing is that I’m not sure what the Charisma modifiers should be.

Off to read.

azr.

I must say that this week’s reading has started a bit on the underwhelming side, but still, I’m just 27 pages away from today’s quota, nothing impressive, to say the least, but as long as I have the ability to at least get those 178 daily pages, the rest should follow.

For example, my reading for week 41 ,which ended yesterday, gave me a total of 1,255 pages, not that I complain about getting past the minimal quota for the week, but only 9 extra pages will simply not do, not if I plan to raise the hypothetical 64,000-page trophy at the end of the year.

But the best thing is to focus on what you did today, like getting the month of March a bit closer to its quota. Right now, it sits comfortably at 4,125 pages, which represents almost 3/4 of the total for the month, and if I’m not mistaken, the rhythm is a bit ahead of schedule, still, if the intention is to get the aforementioned trophy, March should at least finish with 2,700 extra pages on its books.

With that in mind, I’ll better get back to my reading that today has been thru a few things, starting with Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic, a bit of H.P. Lovecraft, the first issue of the highly recommended Izuna, published by the French publisher Humanoids, it has a bit of a vibe of the Jungle Book, but a bit edgier. But what will help me close out the night will be one of the few superheroes from Marvel Comics that still grab my attention, I’m talking about the leather clad Spirit of Vengeance known as the Ghost Rider in one of its earliest incarnation, haunting Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman that sold his soul to the Devil

This particular volume compiles his first adventures on the series Marvel Spotlight, published between 1971 and 1972, under the helm of comic book legends Roy Thomas and Michael Ploog, and the first issues of his solo comic book, as always, this type of story catches really quickly my attention.

There is much to do, and the clock on this day is quickly ticking away.

Off to read

azr

I’m only 35 pages away to fill my daily quota and 95 pages to mark this week on the win column. It was a pretty good day. Any day that I get to spend with my wife and kids is well worth putting my reading a bit on the back burner and just enjoying their precious company.

Now that things have quiet down, I’ll put my head toward getting those remaining pages to finish the week strongly and preparing for the final stretch of the path toward the first major event of the year, Tolkien Reading Day, which is next Saturday, and to be completely honest, I haven’t quite settled in what to read or how the celebration is going to play out, but there’s still time to whip something up.

For today’s final session, my focus will be on the current graphic novel that I started reading this morning, Dragon Age Omnibus, based on the best-selling role-playing video game developed by BioWare that takes place in the fictional continent of Thedas. I’m not so familiar with the video game series, but judging from what I have read so far, it made me what to go and check it out.

I’ll put my remaining energy towards finishing the more than 100 pages left on the story, and if I don’t succumb to quickly to sleep, I’ll probably squeeze a session from Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic, this is one of two books that I would love to finish before the weekend to have my total attention on whichever book from Tolkien’s universe I decide to immerse myself into.

If everything goes according to plan, and if I play my cards right, there’s a strong possibility that my monthly quota can be achieved a week early, giving me space to try to knock off some of those pesky surplus pages accumulated from past months.

Right now, my total for March sits comfortably at 3,871 pages, which represents 70% of the total quota, leaving only 1,647 pages to read, hence my optimism to getting it done by the weekend.

Off to read.

azr

Yesterday, I broke my 16-day streak of reading 178 or more pages, being this my minimal daily quota for getting to the ultimate goal for the year. Fortunately, I did read 87 pages, so the other goal of having 490 consecutive days without any blank days still holds.

Right now, I have 111 total pages for the day and am still working toward restarting the streak to hold on to it for more than the measly 16 days that hold my current record of most consecutive days. With these two totals of reading, the month of March now sits at 3,702 total pages, representing a little over 67%, still pretty great results.

For my weekly reading quota, there’s still 263 pages left, with a few hours of total and the whole of a lazy Sunday to do so, I think there’s a pretty good chance to get it done.

I’ll be jumping between Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic and H.P. Lovecraft Collection to try and chip away at these two bog reward books. Also, I’ll throw some of the Delcourt comics series Dwarves into the mix to help as a palate cleanser from the more heavy-duty reading those two books represent. So far, it has helped to have this rhythm of reading, being that I have already finished volume five of the amazing series, and the sixth volume is just about to get done, I’ll stick to what is working.

I know that sometimes my tone comes out as a bit defeated, but nothing is farther from the truth than that. It’s just that I know that the results can be better. What I’m super excited to share is that today, we finally recorded the second episode of the podcast Estrellas y Dragones. In this particular episode, we tackle some ancient history of the vast and prolific universe of Warhammer Fantasy and give our impressions on the second volume of The Adventures of Gotrek and Felix, if you’re interested in hearing us rant for about an hour, click on the link below.

Hope you enjoy this latest installment.

Off to read.

azr

I’m dangerously close to breaking the amazing reading streak of 16 days, hitting my quota, or going over it. But worry not, if there’s a will, there’s a way.

The good news is that I have already finished one of today’s graphic novels that were on my TBR pile for today, Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai. This was a special treat. Not only was it impressively illustrated by Stan Sakai, but he also had the time to color it with his trademark watercolors. This being a special occasion,the 25th anniversary of the long eared Ronin, it had to mark such joyous milestones.

My total for March sits comfortably at 3,584 total pages, with the two most productive days of the week ahead of me, I’ll try to get past the 4,000 total pages for the month, and of course get the weekly quota done.

Now, I’m off to keep the streak alive.

azr

I’m logging today’s progress a bit earlier , even though the night is still young, and I still have some more reading to do before I get to my goal, the best thing to do was to get a quick update, and get back to final session of the day.

Right now, my total for the month is at 3,412 total, which represents 62% of the total quota. My total for the current week of reading, number 41 of year fifteen, is 693 pages, just a little over the halfway point. Fortunately, there’s a 3-day weekend ahead of me that can only mean some hardcore reading sessions. You know, I like to party hard, and by that, it means that I’ll consume vast amounts of caffeine and read in my favorite couch for hours on end.

So, I’ll get back to keep the streak alive and read a couple of graphic novels that have been on my TBR pile for a while. The first is the horror centric Gotham by Midnight. Some things go bump in the night, and there’s a whole squad from the Gotham Police Department to deal with those pesky supernatural beings, written by Ray Fawkesand illustrated by one of my favorite artist, Ben Templesmith.

The other, and a series that I started reading a while back, is the fourth volume of Delcourt comics Dwarves. As you can see by the cover below, there’s a Dwarf warrior mounted on a war armored hog, I think that explains how cool this series is.

Off to read.

azr

Thus, we have arrived at the halfway point of March and let me tell you that I couldn’t be happier at the results so far.

I’ll start by saying that today’s quota has already been achieved. Currently, it is on a pretty decent 194 total page, with another session left on the day, there’s a few pages pending from Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic, quite a few if I’m being honest, which I’ll get to once this post is finished.

Coming back to the idea that I was toying with yesterday. I settled on using only an analog aid to keep track of my reading and to set daily goals to get me to the finish line before the first major event of the year, Tolkien Reading Day. On that note, today’s goals are or were, considering there’s only a couple of hours left on the day, as follows:

• Read 66 pages from The Ship of Magic
• Read 88 pages from H.P. Lovecraft: The Collection ( yeah, I’m serious about getting it done)
• Read B.P.R.D: Hell on Earth Book 1 (already done)

As an added bonus, I also finished the seventh volume of the marvelous fantasy comic book series from Delcourt publishing, Elves, a breathtaking adventure with some of the best artwork I had the privilege to witness.

Before I leave you to go back to my reading, a thing that almost slipped my mind is updating my progress for the month of March. It’s sitting comfortably at 3,301 pages, which represents around 60% of the monthly quota. This gives me a real shot to not only fill the projected total but also try to chip away some of those pesky red numbers.

The magical seas await me patiently to husher my still overactive mind into the realms of calm and sleep. Let’s see what wondrous adventures await me aboard the magical ship.

Off to read.

azr