It has been three weeks since my last Magic Monday report, has I enter the last leg of this year’s journey, there´s only 15 days left, there´s a strong tendency from my part to get over focus on the reading tasks left, and not enough on writing how things are progressing. But in its imperative for me to share how things are shaping up for the season finally.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks it’s in the bag , starting week number 50 , my total is 54 books, this pass few weeks where dedicated to dwell on a galaxy, far, far away, from which, I read three books from the non-canon Legends section of the Universe, this part of the Star Wars Universe is one that I intended go get thru in it’s entirety, but more on that later.

The fore mentioned book where: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal, Rebel Force: Target, and The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which I just started this morning.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 62,686 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, a pretty decent progress of 4,584 registered pages since the last update.The next 15 days of reading are solely focus on the 2,266 pages to reach the ultimate goal.

Judging from my end of the year projection of total pages ,currently 65,365 pages, the finally tally of pages will be more that satisfactory, there can be potentially some surplus pages to help out the upcoming years. My reading schedule, is as always playing with my emotions, now it stands, I believe for the first time since the very beginning of the year, 1 day ahead of schedule, and it couldn’t come in better timing for the final push.

The mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time, is paying off some dividends.

I start the reading week with a deficit of 928 pages, and a total 2,174 pages to get back to balance. I achieved this week quota plus 26 pages. The total for the month of May is 4074 pages, which represent around 74% of the projected total, leaving only 1,444 pages for the month, inching ever closer to a step those reading badges.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 86,737 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is May 13, 2025, that’s 43 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 302 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 787 to 744 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,550 with a daily average of 221 pages, 5 pages less than the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,062 days away, a 105 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is September 22, 2041 that’s 3,762 days after the original plan, 84 days less that the last projection. I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to reach my goal by my 50th birthday, right now, I would be 60 years 3 months, and 17 days old.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 86,737 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,062 days
• Days behind schedule: 3,762 days

Now back to work on the final goal of the year.

Off to read.

azr.

Welcome to another Magic Monday, the first of May, and now I have officially enter the last leg of this year’s journey. Let’s see how things are shaping up for the season finally.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 46 , although I’m still working on what will be book number 52, The Chronicles of the Black Company penned by Glen Cook, this should be done between today and tomorrow, this to make way for the start of my yearly Star Wars marathon.

Kicking off, as tradition dictates, on May 4. To start off the festivities, I’ll be reading Charles Soules’ Light of the Jedi, the first novel of the highly anticipated exploration of the High Republic era.

The neglected one short story a day challenge will be reignited, putting aside the famous tales of the famous Barbarian, to make way for some tales in a galaxy far, far away.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 58,102 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, a underwhelming progress of 754 registered pages since the last update.The next step, and the whole focus for the remaining 35 days of reading, is to surpass my 64,000 plus pages goal. 6,840 pages stand in my way to success.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a bit of a set back ,currently is at 64,479 pages, 504 pages less than the last update. My reading schedule, is as always playing with my emotions, now it stands 4 days behind, nothing catastrophic, but I really thought that this week will be the one to put me back on schedule .

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 46 with a deficit of 885 pages, and a total 2,131 pages to get back to balance, I came short of this week quota by 225. The total for the month of April was 7,909 pages, which represent around 148% of the projected total, leaving only 197 pages, plus the 5,518 of the quota for the month of May, to get back on track for the entire year, inching ever closer to a step those reading badges.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 91,321 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is May 13, 2025, that’s 2 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 323 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 789 to 787 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,579 with a daily average of 226 pages, this stayed pretty much the same as the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,167 days away, a 12 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is December 15, 2041, that’s 3,846 days after the original plan, 5 days less that the last projection. For the busy week I had, this small push forward is quite surprising. I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to reach my goal by my 50th birthday, right now, I would be 60 years 6 months, and 10 days old.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 91,321 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,157 days
• Days behind schedule: 3,846 days

Now back to work on the final goal of the year.

Off to read.

azr.

Welcome to another Magic Monday, the last of April, and what a week it was.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 45 , I finished book number 51, the first volume of the short story collection Legends II. The next anthology on the queue is the Conquering Sword of Conan, the famous Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. The one short a day challenge suffered some sets backs, but it was for a good cause

On the other hand, which more likely would be the book to close the 52 books challenge, I’m currently on page 478 of the first collection of novels of the famous Black Company, series penned by Glen Cook, my goal is to finish it before my Star Wars marathon begins, on May 4.

It will seem that my reading of the Black Company will come down to the wire, if there’s any chance, I’ll squeeze in a short novel, but that seems highly unlikely.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 57,348 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s a whopping 3,223 registered pages since the last update.The next step, and the whole focus for the remaining 42 days of reading, is to surpass my 64,000 plus pages goal. 7,594 pages stand in my way to success.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a monumental advance ,currently is at 64,983 pages, 2,294 pages more than the last update. My reading schedule, my Achilles heel, is, to much of my delight, just 1 day behind, this is the first time that my projected total is above the goal of the year, and with a little push, this will get back on track.

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 45 with a deficit of 660 pages, and a total 1,906 pages to get back to balance, this marks the second week in a row that my total for the week excess by far the quota, by 1,791 pages to be exact. The total for the month of April sits at 7,123 pages, which represent around 134% of the projected total, now there’s the matter of 983 pages to get back on track for the entire year, inching ever closer to a step those reading badges. Consequently, I have in my possession the design of the first one, the phantom wolf, and let me tell you, it’s fucking gorgeous.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 92,075 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is May 15, 2025, that’s 39 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 330 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 828 to 789 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,581 with a daily average of 226 pages, a four page a day drop from the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,179 days away, a 86 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is December 20, 2041, that’s 3,851 days after the original plan, 79 days less that the last projection. This forward momentum in time gained is becoming the standard, the goal is to at least a month of time with each week. I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to reach my goal by my 50th birthday, right now, I would be 60 years 6 months, and 15 days old.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 92,075 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,179 days
• Days behind schedule: 3,851 days

Now back to work on the final goal of the year.

Off to read.

azr.

Welcome to another Magic Monday, the third of April, to my delight, it is a Monday, so that’s a plus, and on top of this, my reading week was pretty amazing

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 44 , I am working on book number 51 and 52. This will complete my challenge, as I can see it, I’ll probably finish with around 60 books. Right now there’s only one short story left on the Legends II, The Monarch of Glen, by none other that Mr. Neil Gaiman.

The next anthology on the queue is the Conquering Sword of Conan, the second volume of the famous Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. On the other hand, which more likely would be the book to close the 52 books challenge, I’m currently on page 318 of the first collection of novels of the famous Black Company, series penned by Glen Cook, my goal is to finish it by the weekend.

I’ll probably start with some short novels, for example, there’s the two-book horror novel by Mexican writer Gerardo Lima, Megaloceros: Libro del Ciervo 1 y 2, which will be the perfect bridge to sum-up pages until the start of the May the Fourth be with you reading marathon.

The one short story a day challenge is getting back in sync, right now I have a 5 day streak, not that much, but a good sign that everything is falling into place.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 54,125 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s a very decent 2,001 registered pages more than last update.The next step, and the whole focus for the remaining 49 days of reading, is to reach those 64,000 plus pages.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a bit of a surge ,currently is at 62,689 pages, 950 pages less than the last update. My reading schedule, my Achilles heel, is still 12 days behind, this means that for the first time in a while there was some forward momentum in the form of 4 days gained since the last update. This this means that I have finally broken the curse, best not get to cocky.

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 44 with a deficit of 2,451 pages, and a total 3,697 pages to get back to balance, this week was exactly what I needed, with a whopping 1,335 pages over my week’s quota.The total for the month of April sits at 4,086 pages, which represent around 74% of the projected total, exactly where I want to be, a step closer to get those badges .

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 95,298 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is June 24, 2025, that’s 22 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 337 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 850 to 828 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,610 with a daily average of 230 pages, a two page a day drop from the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,265 days away, a 50 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is March 9, 2042, that’s 3,930 days after the original plan, 43 days less that the last projection. This forward momentum in time gained is becoming the standard, the goal is to at least a month of time with each week. I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to reach my goal by my 50th birthday, right now, I would be 60 years 9 months, and 4 days old.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 95,298 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,265 days
• Days behind schedule: 3,930 days

Now back to work on the final goal of the year.

Off to read.

azr.

Welcome to a Magic Monday, the second one of April, but the first entry in the blog. Must protect those streaks.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 43 , I am working on book number 51 the first collection of novels of the famous Black Company, series penned by Glen Cook, I must say that this series doesn’t get thrown around as one of the best ever written, but just 150 pages into it, and there’s clear resonance to another newer series, where Mr. Cook’s writing clearly influence them, for example The Malazan Book of the Fallen .

I’m just about to start a new short story collection, Legends II, edited by Robert Silverberg, and containing story by top writers like Robin Hobb, Anne McCaffrey, Tad Williams, and Neil Gaiman.

With my impending end of the year just looming over the horizon, I need to enter into turbo mode, there’s some Hellboy novels on my queue and around 40 graphic novels to fill in the gaps. There’s a supernatural determination from my end not to come up short from this year’s goal.

The one short story a day challenge is finally, and apparently, successfully restarting, today I finished Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane collection, tomorrow, the first story of the new collection will be Robin Hobb’s Homecoming.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 52,124 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s a very decent 2,306 registered pages more than last update.The next step, and focus from now on, is to reach those 64,000 plus pages.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a small step back ,currently is at 61,739 pages, 69 pages less than the last update. My reading schedule is still 16 days behind,that’s a one day more than the last update, this is one of the things I have been chasing all year.

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 43 with a deficit of 3,786 pages, and a total 4,951 pages to get back to balance, this week I came short by 67 pages. The total for the month of April sits at 1,505 pages, which represent around 28% of the projected total, not exactly where I want to be, but this doesn’t not deter me, as I said, supernatural determination .

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 97,299 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is July 16, 2025, that’s 18 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 344 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 867 to 850 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,626 with a daily average of 232 pages, a two page a day drop from the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,315 days away, a 50 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is April 21, 2042, that’s 3,973 days after the original plan, 36 days less that the last projection. This forward momentum in time gain is becoming the standard, the goal is to at least a month of time with each week. I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to reach my goal by my 50th birthday, right now, I would be 60 years 10 months, and 16 days old.

In this case 60 is not the new 50.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 97,299 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,315 days
• Days behind schedule: 3,973 days

Now back to work on the final goal of the year.

Off to read.

azr.

Once again, welcome to a Magic Monday that’s actually on a Monday (I’m digging this streak), the final one of the month of March, and once again it was quite the amazing week of reading.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 41 with two books finished is just the way to reach my goals. So, The Children of Húrin is book number 46 and La búsqueda del asesino is book number 47. This week, at least how I intend to proceed, is to read the first book of F.G. Haghenbeck´s world involving Elvis Infante, infamous exorcist and demon dealer, this novel is the basis of Netflix series Diablero, which, if you haven’t seen it, you can binge the two available seasons, it will not disappoint. The second book on my queue is the first collection of novels of the famous Black Company, series penned by Glen Cook, and one that I have been putting off for quite some time.

The one short story a day challenge is till on hold, working on the collection of infamous puritan swordsman Solomon Kane, as I said last time created by Robert E. Howard famous for creating Conan The Barbarian, the illustrations by Gary Gianni are simply beautiful. But with other pressing matters, I just couldn’t get back on that particular challenge.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 49,818 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s a very decent 1,537 registered pages more than last update. Still struggling to reach the next step, 50,000 pages, I’m glad to say that there’s only 182 pages left to reach this coveted milestone.Now my focus is more concern of the 15,124 pages left to reach this year’s ambitious goal.

But the best news of the week is that I crossed the 400,000-page threshold, it took me 4,919 days to get here, what comes next? 99,605 pages to reach the first half-million.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a small surge ,currently is at 61,808 pages, 451 pages more than the last update. My reading schedule is still 15 days behind,that’s a two days less than the last update, I’m a happy camper.

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 41 with a deficit of 3,394 pages, and a total 4,640 pages to get back to balance, this week I came short by 215 pages. The total for the month of March, for which the projected goal is 5,518 pages, is now 6,037 representing 109%, with only 4 days left on the month, let’s see how much more I can chip-away from those red number, which still are 3,346 pages to get back in balance for the whole year.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 99,605 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is August 2, 2025, that’s 15 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, 358 intense days of reading.The gap narrowed from 882 to 867 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,639 with a daily average of 234 pages, a two page a day drop from the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,365 days away, a 37 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is May 27, 2042, that’s 4,009 days after the original plan, 30 days less that the last projection. This forward momentum in time gain is becoming the standard, the goal is to at least a month of time with each week. I have to keep reminding myself that my coveted end date is in the middle 2031, not somewhere in 2042.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 99,605 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,365 days
• Days behind schedule: 4,009 days

Now back to work on the 50,000-page milestone, and hitting my very neglected daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Off to read.

azr.

Once again, welcome to a Magic Monday that’s actually on a Monday, the third of the month of March, and once again it was quite the amazing week of reading.

My challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is still way ahead of schedule, starting week number 40, I´m still working on book number 46, La búsqueda del asesino by legendary author Robin Hobb, currently on page 529 of 829, the final book of the Farseer trilogy. The one short story a day challenge suffered a bit of a set back, the 65-day streak came to a stop, hopefully this will restart today and not stop for quite a while . Still working on the collection of infamous puritan swordsman Solomon Kane, as I said last time created by Robert E. Howard famous for creating Conan The Barbarian, the illustrations by Gary Gianni are simply beautiful.

For the next short story collection, I have decided to go with Legends II, containing stories by some heavy hitters like Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams and Anne McCaffrey. There’s a particular story set in the vast universe created by Robin Hobb that’s just screams to be read.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 48,281 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s a very decent 1,295 registered pages more than last update. Still struggling to reach the next step, 50,000 pages. Last Monday, according to my projections, was the day when I supposedly had to reach this next milestone but with 1,719 pages to reach it, I’ll give myself another week to do so. But on some positive news, year number fourteen is now officially my best one, now my focus shifts to those 16,661 pages left to reach this year’s ambitious goal.

The end of the year projection of total pages had a small surge ,currently is at 61,357 pages, 238 pages more than the last update. My reading schedule is still 17 days behind, as long as the numbers don’t pile up, or in the best case scenario, go down one or two days a week, I’m a happy camper.

I keep on sticking to my mantra, one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week 40 with a deficit of 3,179 pages, and a total 4,425 pages to get back to balance, this week I had a surplus of 360 pages. The total for the month of March, for which the projected goal is 5,518 pages, is now 5,006 representing almost a 91%, with only 10 days left on the month, things are looking in great shape. There´s 4,377 pages to get back in balance for the whole year.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 101,142 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is August 17, 2025, that’s 12 days earlier than the last projection, my sights are still pointed at exactly one year from now, at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, a date that is fast approaching. The gap narrowed from 894 to 882 days behind schedule.

The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,651 with a daily average of 236 pages, a page a day drop from the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,402 days away, a 29 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is June 26, 2042, that’s 4,039 days after the original plan, 22 days less that the last projection. This forward momentum in time gain is becoming the standard, the goal is to at least a month of time with each week. I have to keep reminding myself that my coveted end date is in the middle 2031, not somewhere in 2042.

To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.

• Pages to reach 500,000: 101,147 pages
• Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,402 days
• Days behind schedule: 4,039 days

Now back to work on the 50,000-page milestone, and hitting my very neglected daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Off to read.

azr.