Yesterday was an amazing one for my reading, I sum up 541 pages, and finish three graphic novels, Berserk Desencadenado by the amazingly talented Jeff Lemire, Conan: La batalla de la corona serpiente, the Cimmerian crosses over to the Marvel Universe, and Ghost in the Shell Vol. 2, pretty fun, but not as good as its predecessor.
There’s still 7,073 pages left on my 10,000-page December, and just little under 114 hours of “end of the year reading marathon”.
With just 13 days to go on the year, this will be down to the wire, but as with all things in life, just have to jump into the river and see where the flow takes you.
I’ll try to finish Anne Rice’s Servant of the Bones, currently on page 188 of 387, three single issues from the current Conan run (see pictures below), and whatever else the day presents.
Now for my next choice of the upcoming Star Wars days, I’m torn between three books, The Dark Nest trilogy, which is now part of the Legends or non-canon Star Wars Stories, Última oportunidad, following our favorite scoundrel in his formative years, and lastly, the beginning of the tales of the golden time of the Republic with Light of the Jedi. I’ll let the fates decide.
Yesterday was crazy busy, with the holidays just around the corner, my day was spent running errands, doing some yardwork, and finding some presents for the kids.
With all of this, I could only read a total of 52 pages, not quite the big chunk but better than zero. Luckily, my reading today has picked up the slack from past days, it’s only 8:00 a.m. and my total is already 84 pages.
With hope that this weekend is relatively quiet, my goal is to reach 30,000 pages, that’s around 600 pages left to read, and most importantly take down substantially the two December challenges, “end of the year reading marathon” with 116 hours left, and 10,000-page December, with 7,530 pages left.
Quite the task, but I’m planning to close-out the year in style.
Yesterday was kind of a slow day for my reading, I had a total of 127 pages, this is because my schedule was a bit filled with some housework and a much needed dentist appointment.
Today, hopefully, I’ll get thru some errands early so I can get some serious reading done.
My numbers to star this weekend, and the final two weeks of the year, are 7,666 left to go on the 10,000-page December, and 119 hours and 10 minutes to finish the “end of the year reading marathon”.
Lots to do, but I’ll make the most of the weekend and chip away some significant progress in both challenges.
There’s only 15 days left on this very atypical 2021, quite the follow to the dreaded 2020. But it’s also an opportunity to close it out with some positive thing to move things along back to the desired direction.
For my reading, I have a gargantuan task ahead of me, which includes, 121 hours left on the “end of the year reading”, and 7,793 pages on the 10,000-pshe December.
But fear not, this two challenges will be met, and start off a whole new era for me.
With this in mind, I better get some coffee going.
Yesterday, at the age of 80 years ,one of the most important writers in my life passed away. I am off course talking about Anne Rice.
Famous for creating the classic Vampire Chronicles, does Vampire Lestat ring any bells, her work expanded to more than that, taking on witches, Ramses, and even the Messiah himself.
My favorite work will always be The Servant of the Bones, so much that my alias in almost all of things I develop is azr, which is short for Azriel, the main character of this amazing novel.
The mystique of the character enthralled me, not so easily read, is he a ghost, an angel, or a demon, underlayed with an incredible sadness that he carries for all those centuries, but what finally settled my fascination was his hard fought redemption, we can feel haunted for what would seem like millennia, but we can always free ourselves from whatever encases us, even from suffocating solid gold.
In honor of our Queen, I’ll read this amazing story, and hear her powerful words resonate in my head.
To close-out this week of reading, I find myself only 95 pages away of the weekly mandatory total, that’s 1,246 pages for each week.
On the broader scope, this finally chilly morning starts with just over 124 hours left on my “end of the year reading marathon”. My goal to finish this week is to be under 120 hours, and with at least 7,500 pages left to reach my other, a 10,000-page December, right now it sits at 7,883 pages.
For today, besides trying to chip away at the magnificent La estación de la calle Perdido, currently on page 609, I’ll try to get thru a couple of volumes that have been sitting in my TBR pile for a while, Ghost in Shell Volume and Berserk Desencadenado, the latter by one of my favorite comic book creators, Jeff Lemire.
And starting on December 17, I’ll dive into the first Star Wars readathon of the year, here’s a glimpse into what’s on queue for reading.
3 weeks until the end of 2021, and I’m going to make the best of them.
I still have a little under 132 hours left on my end of the year marathon, and 8,393 pages to reach that coveted 10,000 pages for the month of December.
Now I’ll activate the read whatever you can mode for the upcoming 3 weeks, this includes some new findings in today’s loot. Some Star Wars, some Conan the Barbarian, and my favorite chain smoking exorcist John Constantine.
Now, to take a good chunk of the incredible La estación de la Calle Perdido by China Mieville, which has been the find of the year for me, I knew his books were critically acclaimed, and with due justice, they’re richly complex worlds with a language and narrative that keeps you glued to the book.
In between the vast and intricate back alleys of New Crobuzon, I’ll squeeze in some of the masterful short stories by the greatly missed Ray Bradbury.
As I update my digital files with the last days of reading for the month of November, including the bummer 0-page day to finish the month, it is evident that my pace has picked-up, but not quite where it should be.
The final tally for the month was 5,446 of the 5,340 projected for the month, a whole 106 pages of surplus. That leaves me 9,826 pages, this including the 5,518 projected for December, to get this ship back on track.
So, I asked myself, How about a 10,000-page month?, the clear answer is why not, never try it, never done it, what better time that now to challenge myself with new and ridiculous challenges.
On a positive note, the first two days of the month of December sum-up 538 pages, the perfect way to hit the ground running.
As the midway point of this year of reading approaches, it’s this Monday, December 6, the need to hit the milestone becomes almost unbearable, should be at 32,574 pages, currently, my total is 27,919 pages, those almost 5,000 pages that I have fallen behind with are the main goal for this intense month of reading.
I have a lot of amazing reading ahead of me, including the return to one of my favorite ‘verse, Firefly, let’s see what Mal and company are up to.
I known that every magic Monday I said the same thing, if anything I’m an optimist, but hopefully this time around, and with the Christmas break looming in the horizon, my goals will be surpassed.
Now, for the good news, the 52 book in 52 weeks challenge is still working like clockwork, I´m already full steam on book number 27, by the way this is week number 24, the start of the critically acclaimed series Bas Lag by the amazingly talented China Miéville, in La estación de la calle Perdido, we are introduced to the decadent city of New Crobuzon, in all its Steampunk glory. Since reading two other books from the author, La ciudad y la ciudad, and Los últimos días de la Nueva París, I was immediately hooked, and being this trilogy its most acclaimed work, naturally there’s the impending necessity to dive right into the murky waters of the river Tar.
Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 27,212 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s 5,645 registered pages more than last update. Since the prize at the end of the next milestone, reaching 25,000 pages, was a very special bottle of Mexican Red Wine, but taking into account that I have fallen a bit behind on my total page count, some extra motivation is in order, this, in the form of said bottle waiting until the 30,000-page mark.
The end of the year projection of total pages gained a bit of ground, right now is at 56,589 pages, 3,254 more pages than the last update. My reading schedule, which keeps me up at night, is now 23 days behind, this is a 4 day gain, there’s still a lot of ground to cover, but a step forward is always welcomed
I start week 24 with a deficit of 4,961 pages, and a total 4,420 pages to get back to balance, the good news is that I have only 6 pages left of the 5340 projected for the month of November, that means that for the first time in three months the monthly quota will be met.
Now, for the first 500,000 pages, I have only 122,214 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is February 28, 2026, a whole two months sooner than the last projection, still my sights are pointed at March 20, 2023 as the desired date to reach the first half of the challenge, that gap narrowed from 1,136 to 1,077 days behind schedule.
The second part of the journey, or the other 500,000 pages, the weekly average needed is now 1,818 with a daily average of 260 pages, since the last projections, the daily average dropped 8 pages per day.
Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections puts it 7,904 days away, a 145 day gain from the last projection, making the end date is July 21, 2043, that’s 4,429 days after the original plan, 117 days less that the last projection. In spite of everything, I managed to stay in 2043, with my eye on the prize of the coveted end date of 2031, and the very special trip to close-out the final pages of my journey.
To summary the numbers from my Journey Back.
Pages to reach 500,000: 122,214 pages
Days to reach 1,000,000: 7,904 days
Days behind schedule: 4,429 days
Let’s get those 6 pages to finish November on a high mark, and shoot for a 10,000-page December.
Yesterday, between shivers and sweats, I had a very successful reading.
My total was 548 pages, finished Wolverine’s Blood Debt graphic, and got to page 332 of China Mieville’s novel La ciudad y la ciudad, I’m planning to finish the 66 pages left today.
In my weekly reading, there’s only 79 pages left to reach the coveted 1,246-page mark, this is shaping up to be a good week to chip away a significant chunk to those surplus pages.
For the “end of the year reading marathon”, I read for 4 hours and 23 minutes, fast approaching 150 hours left, and with the holidays just around the corner, nothing but hot chocolate, cookies and reading.
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