Yesterday’s reading came to show me that if I stick to my routine, only good things can come out of it, case in point, my total was a whopping 524 pages, this with a work packed day.

I’m following the same dynamic every day. After doing my morning tasks, I pour myself a cup of coffee and try to read for at least 15 minutes, aiming to get to 30 minutes. After this, I get ready to head out and tackle the day’s schedule. If there’s no meetings, I try to squeeze in a couple of 15-minute sessions every couple of hours of intense work.

The only variation this week is that I have been having lunch by myself, the perfect opportunity to make some progress on whatever there’s on queue from the never-ending reading list, trying to do so on my tablet or kindle, there’s no point risking a perfect printed book to the trials of my sloppy eating. Better save than sorry.

As you can tell by the time that I sit down and post my daily entry, I’m getting ready to hit the hay, the perfect time to get one more reading session under my belt and finish the day with some pages on the read column.

For today’s final session, I’ll start with volume sixteen of the manga series Berserk, the last volume finish on a cliffhanger evolving some really freaky looking elves.

And if my stamina holds out for a little while longer, I’ll jump into the second volume of the series Batman Eternal, written by two superstar creators, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. The first volume was incredibly good, and I just can wait for the follow-up, the way it finishes, not to spoil anything, but the two villains teased at the end, pure genius.

My goals for the days ahead of me are to chip away at least 1,000 from the extra assignment for the month of April, thus getting way past the mark of this week’s quota, and contribute some positive pages, around 420, to the how diminish surplus pages from past weeks.

Off to read.

azr

The wait to restart the story of Guts in the amazing manga series Berserk was well worth the wait. Last night, I finished reading volume 14, and for tonight’s session, I’ll continue with number 15 to close out the day in style.

I have high hope for my progress in these upcoming weeks, I have returned to my routine, finding little nooks and crannies in order to squeeze in short but effective sessions, so far so good. The testament of this is that I have a total for the month of April of 5,789 pages with a goal of reading an extra 2,671 pages to level the playing field for the final 37 days of this year’s journey.

It’s not an easy task, considering that there’s about 8,000 pages left on my minimal goal for the year and around 15,000 pages to match last year’s extraordinary results. To get to the big goals, I have to take little steps toward it, for this week, is represented by, firstly by another 971 pages, and then by 798 additional pages. Not so few steps, but compared to the behemoth task of 15,000 pages, those immediate goals look like a walk in the park.

Off to read.

azr

Although this day hasn’t been a really productive one for my reading, I’ll sit count it as a very satisfying one. This is because after a couple of years, I finally got on my hands o e of the most coveted, at least for me, volumes of my favorite manga series, Berserk.

It was really challenging to find it after countless trips to the specialty store of the publisher that prints it in Spanish, Panini Group, and two attempts on the online store to buy it, one of these attempts was with finally paying for it, excepting to find it on the shipping box, only to be disappointed with its absence and getting my money back but no Manga, but finally, volume number 14 is my collection and I’m read it right after I finish this post.

It arrived just at the nick of time, with six more volumes sitting waiting for their missing brother to join them. It’s the perfect addition to my reading queue for the final stretch of the year. Tallying about 1,200 between them and their addictive pace, it’s just the kind of boost I was longing.

To start off things for week number 46 of the year, new challenges arise. To begin with the 4,340 surplus pages from past weeks, which decreased by 172 pages from last week. This is closely followed by the 2,935 extra pages to the April quota. The addition of this new reading material will surely spark a new flame on the dwindling year.

Off to read.

azr

There’s only one more day to get to halfway point of the month, and the burning question is if am I going to reach the quota, and the remaining 15 days to chip away some of those pesky surplus pages from past weeks. The short answer is, yes.

But why so confident you may ask, well, my total is 5,114, around 93% of the needed total, leaving 226 pages to read between what is left of today and all day tomorrow. Not to judge my progress today, or even take it as an indication of things to come, but with the slow start on today’s sessions, I haven’t quite gotten back to the magnificent reading pace and routine from those two behemoth of weeks that put me into a position to success going.

The main thing is not to panic, and most importantly, keep repeating the daily mantra “one step at a time, one page at a time.” With the simply philosophy, I’ll try to sum up more pages to the already 117 read today. Not to jump really ahead of myself, but I’m most certain that with the pages still to be tallied into my digital log , there’s the strong possibility that this year’s 50,000-page milestone has been conquer, a task to be completed first thing tomorrow.

My final reading session of the day will be comprised of a few pages of The Book of Lost Tales Part One. There’s around 40 pages left on the book, and what mesmerizing journey it had been to see how the mythology of such a beloved world came to be.

As always, considering that I don’t succumb too quickly to sleep, there’s some pages left to explore that traverse the treacherous streets of Gotham City, following the Dark Knight and his battle with the dangerous villain Profesor Pyg, which was created by another dynamic duo of creator, Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, making his debut in July 2007 on Batman #666. In this incarnation, the creative team behind the story is Scott Snyder on writing duties and Jason Fabok on the art work.

Off to read.

azr

Yesterday’s reading got me back on track, and the whopping 340 total pages are a testament of that. Inch by inch, I’m working toward the next milestone, 50,000 pages. It’s so close that I can taste it.

My total for April is comfortably sitting on 4,494 pages, which gives me the perfect opportunity to close out this month’s page quota by the 15th. The perfect storm is brewing, and I’ll be damn if this forward momentum passes me by. There’s every possible sign that points to lining myself up for an extraordinary final push.

The other thing that has been moving along quite nicely is my journey to the first 500,000 pages. I’m only 34,373 pages away from that important milestone that, according to my projections, I should be arriving at that point on May 7, 2024. This date has been getting closer, and my hope is that by January 2024, that goal should be done.

But, in order to get all of this planning and scheming done, I have to do one particular thing, read. In that department, today’s accomplices will be the tenth volume of the Manga series Fairy Tail. This story promises us to dig into the murky of one of the guild’s most iconic members, Erza Scarlet. What secrets does the Tower of Heaven have in store for our band of misfits?

Let’s find out.

The other graphic novels on the queue is the first volume of the series Batman: Eternal, written by two of my favorite authors working on comic books right now, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. This story follows the growing tension between the Dark Knight and GCPD as a gang war errupts bringing new villains into play in an already chaotic city.

This is going to be a pretty good return to reading super heroe comic books that I have been putting off for several months out of simple exhaustion of the overly exploited genre.

Off to read.

azr

Today’s reading has started really slowly, and I had a ton of pending tasks from real life to attend to that I’ll have to make up in this late hour of the night.

The good news is that my surplus of pages from past weeks has gone down exponentially compared to last weeks. This is a direct result of the two outstanding weeks of reading I had. From week 42 to the current week 45, my negative page count went from 8,330 pages behind to 4,526, which is just the kind of forward motion I needed to re-spark my hopes of ending the year with the ultimate goal under my belt.

In order for that, there’s only thing I have to do, read. Tonight’s itinerary will revolve in volume seven of the fantasy series. Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones, it’s been a while since my journey has taken me over the perilous paths of this vast universe, and now they will lead to Kaer Maga, The City of Strangers, let’s see what new terrors await me.

If I don’t succumb to sleep quickly, there’s maybe the next volume, that would be number nine, of the Manga series Fairy Tail. Let’s see what new misadventures this rag-tag group of wizards get themselves into after their guild house collapse unto itself, You’ll think there will be hell to pay.

Off to read.

azr