Daily Journal: February 19, 2023

Yesterday was a fairly productive day, of the five tasks on my checklist, I checked off three. The only two that eluded my capability of reading, reading 48 pages of Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy and reading 108 pages of H.P. Lovecraft’s Collection, this one, in particular, has been stalled for several days.

The focus for today is trying to get closer to the 40,000-page mark, as I wrote yesterday before my 100-day march begins on February 27. I still have 3,859 pages left to achieve the goal over an 8-day period, having 4 books and 5 mangas left on my TBR pile in order, to sum up, the necessary pages to cross the mark. The other task left to close out the week with at least the quota is to read a total of 377 pages for this lazy rainy Sunday.

I hope the day stays, at least for a little while, with the beautiful cloud cover that our desert enjoys right now, and if it has a touch of light rain it would be perfect to take my reading outside for a couple of chapters in the company of my beloved ash tree.

After crunching a few numbers, today’s checklist goes as follows:

Read 53 pages of Cormac McCarthy´s The Border Trilogy
Read 120 pages of H.P. Lovecraft’s Collection
Read 1 story from Biútiful Frik (see picture and description below)
Read DR.Stone Vol. 9
Read 24 pages of Mark Chadbourn´s Hellboy: The Ice Wolves

Before I set out for today’s reading, I would like to share a quick description of one of the books on my TBR pile which I have named “Before the march”, it is Biútiful Frik, a collection of short stories, three of them illustrated, inspired by Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein, the short stories are by Mexican female authors, with the exception of the graphic artist Bef, and their take is a refreshing approach to one of history’s greatest novel.

Off to read.

azr

19 February, 2023 0

Daily Journal: February 18, 2023

As it turns out, the best results for regaining my motivation and rhythm of reading come from taking a moment early in my mornings to plan and scheme what my day should be. Just as dawn approaches, with the first cup of coffee of the day, the pathways toward my ultimate open up quite clearly, I don´t know if it’s the almost awake state or the stupor from the caffeine shot to the system, but things become a series of task to be approached.

In this particular series of entries, my intent is to share my day-to-day planning toward this project that is an integral part of who I am, it gives me so much joy and purpose to share my love for books, and with this outlet, I can share a glimpse of what it looks like to be on a pathway dedicated to devouring what the world of literature has to offer, this, sprinkled with a bit of the place that gives me comfort and solace to escape reality for a bit.

For the upcoming weeks my sole focus will be to achieve a couple of things: reach 40,000 total pages for the year before the last 100 days of reading, better known as the 100-day march, and work toward the ultimate goal of 64,942 pages for the year fifteen. In between these two global goals, there are always fun activities and challenges to get me to the finish line in style.

To help me along with the 40,000 total pages, I have devised a daily checklist of the minimal reading tasks, that sum up will get me passed this particular task, for today these are the goals:

Read 48 pages of Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy
Read 108 pages of H.P. Lovecraft: A Collection
Read 1 story from the compilation Biútiful Frik
Read the manga DR.Stone Vol. 8
Read 28 pages of Mark Chadbourn’s Hellboy: The Ice Wolves

Throughout the day I will make little nooks to read and enjoy a moment of silence. I’ll see you tomorrow to see how the day went, and what new task emerges for the new day.

Off to read.

azr.

18 February, 2023 0

Numbers: February 18, 2023

I know not quite a Monday but let’s call it a blissful Saturday, and hopefully back to my old writing habits.

My total for the weeks that I didn’t update goes as follows:

Week 34: 1,443 pages
Week 35: 483 pages
Week 36: 821 pages

The only week that gave a little bit over the quota was number 34, but not even close to countering the two awful results of the subsequent weeks. But not all are bad news since my last update, I finished the second volume of Gotrek and Felix´s Adventures and got to around 60% done with Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, thanks to my plans of getting as close as possible for this year’s total quota, a new section of this blog has emerged as a necessity to refocus the daily efforts toward the coveted 1,000,000-page mark.

With events like my 100-day march, the boldness, and the final breath, each day counts toward this year’s success.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 35,949 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s 3,550 pages of progress since my last update, now the next task is to reach the number 4 spot in my top years of reading, which is currently 9,396 pages away. Still, there’s the 3,000-plus week that eludes me, one of the goals for year number fifteen is to have at least one, and finally have the first sigil, representing one of the three aspects of my inspiration, tattooed on my body.

My reading schedule, the Achilles heel of the whole shebang, is 54 days behind, four days more than the last update, this could be worst but as I commented before, this setback is a reflection of the current book that I’m reading being over 1,000 pages, and the return of H.P. Lovecraft’s story collection, a 1,353-page volume, back to my reading rotation gives me slow progress with a big pay off at the end, by the beginning of the 100-day march I should regain the lost ground and then some. My current projections put my total at 51,396 pages that are 13,546 pages less than what I’m comfortable with. The mantra for every morning will continue to be: one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week thirty-seven with a deficit of 8,086 pages, giving me quite the challenge to balance out this gargantuan number in each of the 15 weeks left on this year of reading. That number for this week is 775 additional pages to the 1,246 pages of the weekly quota.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 47,675 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is August 23, 2024, that’s around 20 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, now I have 31 days to do so, but according to my current projection, the reality is that I’m 553 days behind schedule.

For the second part of the journey or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,412 with a daily average of 202 pages, one daily page less than the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections put it 6,352 days away, a 62-day gain from the last projection, making the end date July 9, 2040, that’s 3,322 days after the original plan, 38 days less than 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 59 years 1 month, and 4 days old.

To summarize the numbers from my Journey Back.

Pages to reach 500,000: 47,675 pages
Days to reach 1,000,000: 6,352 days
Days behind schedule: 3,322 days

Off to read.

azr.

18 February, 2023 0

A fantastical literary podcast, or, my new collaboration

As I mentioned before, at the beginning of this year a much-anticipated collaboration with our friend over in lo que leemos was finally taking shape. Today I’m glad to inform you that our first episode of the podcast “Estrellas y Dragones” is now available to stream on several platforms, and the video of our conversation is also available thru the YouTube channel of our shared project.

Below you can find the links to the YouTube channel and Spotify.

Estrellas y Dragones on Youtube

Our first episode was about the first omnibus of the adventures of famous heroes of the Warhammer Fantasy universe Gotrek and Felix. We hope to be producing at least one episode per month, in which, we will cover our joint reads of anything and everything surrounding two of our favorites genre, fantasy and science fiction, with the occasional horror novel, just to spice things up.

For now, I´m off to read.

azr

17 February, 2023 0

The, seemingly, impossible task

One of the tasks that was in my January goals was to finish the two books that were put on hold for my holiday reading marathon.

Both books, The Second Omnibus of The Adventures of Gotrek and Felix, and The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy, are over 1,000 pages each, and with 3 days left on the month, I have to rally in order to hit one more of my goals, I have already surpass the monthly quota, but that’s information for tomorrow’s post.

So, today’s targets are as follows.

Quite the task for these upcoming days, but with a high reward at the end of it, I’m more than motivated to get things done.

Off to read

azr

29 January, 2023 0

Of Forgotten Things

As much as I like to use digital mediums to keep track of my reading, currently, I’m combining some simple spreadsheets with the readmore app, nothing beats the ol’ reliable analog tracking in the form of a journal mostly adapted from the Bullet Journal method, and enriched with so many ideas you can find all over the internet.

But to be completely honest, my two reading journals for years fourteen and the current year fifteen, are not quite up to date with all the amazing progress that these couple of years have given me, and to do them justice I have decided to take upon nice self to right the situation. It will be a monumental task, but they surely deserve it, and plus, this will leave a physical manifestation of my beloved project.

The smaller one, with the crescent moon on the cover is my journal for year fourteen, it is a Tsuki Midnight Edition from Notebook Therapy the cool of this particular notebook is that it has black pages and it came with a set of gel pencils. The taller one is my current journal and it is a Classic Squared Notebook from Moleskine, a pretty elegant and reliable brand.

Over the year I have tried to develop a tracking method that is both clear with the data and also integrates some graphic elements to represent my progress.

An element that both journals have is this page depicting the days I have left of reading for the year, but also it doubles as a tracker of how much I read each and every day with a color chart that is easy to read, I treat it as a calendar that you check off each passing day.

A new element that I incorporated into this year´s journal is the colorful spiral that you see above, each square represents a number of pages read, and it helps me visualize my monthly progress in a clear and colorful way, and to be honest, filling those squares is both satisfying and relaxing.

There are other elements integrated into my journals and as always these analog logs are constantly evolving into what I think they need to be to better represent my journey thru reading 1,000,000 pages. I’ll share a little more inside this precious book, and hopefully inspire, as so many beautiful examples that did this for me, to pick up a notebook and scribble away your ideas.

Off to read.

azr

24 January, 2023 0

Numbers: January 24, 2023

Once again my Magic Monday has to turn into a Tuesday, but with things going as they are, I really can’t complain.

My total for the week was an amazing 1,491 pages, that’s 19% more than the week’s quota. The goal of picking up my reading of the second volume of Gotrek and Felix´s Adventures and The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy has worked out beautifully, respectively, I have completed 68% and 45% of each book. The plan is to finish them by January 31, which is about 49 and 70 daily pages of each to get this task.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 32,399 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s 1,174 pages of progress since last Monday, with this, this year entered my top 5 of the best page total, now the next task, position number 4, is 12,946 pages away. Still, there’s the 3,000-plus week that eludes me, one of the goals for year number fifteen is to have at least one, and finally have the first sigil tattooed on my body.

My reading schedule, the Achilles heel of the whole shebang, is 50 days behind, one day more than last week, this minimal step back does not concern me that much, this is a reflection of the two current books that I’m reading being over 1,000 pages, slow progress with a big pay off at the end, by the end of January I should regain the lost ground and then some. My current projections put my total at 51,112 pages that are 13,830 pages less than what I’m comfortable with. The mantra for every morning will continue to be: one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week thirty-four with a more manageable deficit of 7,095 pages, giving me quite the challenge to balance out this gargantuan number in each of the 18 weeks left on this year of reading. That number for this week is 540 additional pages to the 1,246 pages of the weekly quota.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 51,225 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is September 11,2024 that’s around 6 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, now I have 56 days to do so, but according to my current projection, the reality is that I’m 596 days behind schedule.

For the second part of the journey or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,423 with a daily average of 203 pages, one daily page less than the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections put it 6,414 days away, a 21-day gain from the last projection, making the end date August 16, 2040, that’s 3,360 days after the original plan, 3 days less than 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 59 years 2 months, and 11 days old.

To summarize the numbers from my Journey Back.

Pages to reach 500,000: 51,225 pages
Days to reach 1,000,000: 6,414 days
Days behind schedule: 3,360 days

Off to read.

azr.

24 January, 2023 0

Numbers: January 17, 2023

Welcome to the third Magic Monday of the year, well almost on a Monday but the thought is what counts, and let me tell you that things are starting to roll quite beautifully.

My total for the week was an amazing 1,523 pages, that’s 22% more than the week’s quota, this week´s plan is to pick up the two books, the second volume of Gotrek and Felix´s Adventures and The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy, that I was reading before my Christmas reading marathon involving a trilogy of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher and the first 5 volumes of IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I finally finished over the weekend. In addition to this, I have picked up a new Manga series, Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima, currently, on volume number 3, and with 52 titles available thru my Kindle Unlimited subscription, there are a lot of stories to go thru.

My goal is to read more Manga series, right now there are a few on my radar like DR. Stone, Claymore, Noragami: Stray God, and Battle Angel Alita, but any recommendations are welcome, I’m kind of new to the genre, and it has hooked me.

Now let’s talk about MY NUMBERS, the current total is 31,225 of the 64,952 pages of this year’s goal, that’s 1,355 pages of progress since last Monday, with this, I’m 923 pages away from making this year enter my top 5 of the best page total. Still, there’s the 3,000-plus week that eludes me, one of the goals for year number fifteen is to have at least one, and finally have the first sigil tattooed on my body.

My reading schedule, the Achilles heel of the whole shebang, is 49 days behind, staying the same as last week, at least I didn’t lose ground, which for me is a victory in itself. My current projections put my total at 51,019 pages that are 13,923 pages less than what I’m comfortable with. The mantra for every morning will continue to be: one step at a time, one page at a time.

I start week thirty-three with a more manageable deficit of 7,340 pages, giving me quite the challenge to balance out this gargantuan number in each of the 19 weeks left on this year of reading. That number for this week is 534 additional pages to the 1,246 pages of the weekly quota.

For the first 500,000 pages, I have only 52,399 pages left, and the new date of reaching that goal is September 17,2024 that’s around 10 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, now I have 64 days to do so, but according to my current projection, the reality is that I’m 610 days behind schedule.

For the second part of the journey or the other 500,000 pages, my weekly pages needed are now 1,426 with a daily average of 204 pages, one daily page less than the last projection.

Now for the golden prize of 1,000,000 pages, to my delight, the projections put it 6,435 days away, a 56-day gain from the last projection, making the end date August 29, 2040, that’s 3,363 days after the original plan, 29 days less than 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 59 years 2 months, and 24 days old.

To summarize the numbers from my Journey Back.

Pages to reach 500,000: 52,399 pages
Days to reach 1,000,000: 6,435 days
Days behind schedule: 3,363 days

Off to read.

azr.

17 January, 2023 0

Today’s Target

In order to reach the ultimate goal of this project, one word should be the main axis of each and every day, Consistency.

Fortunately, and with the help of the Readmore app, this first month of 2023 has been showing some signs of what my reading is supposed to be.

Thanks to one of the feature of the app, I can set daily targets not only for the total pages for day, but also for each individual book, this gives clear daily goals in order to meet my self imposed deadline

For today’s reading, these are my goals.

The daily goal will always be the main focus, those 180 pages are the minimum required to crossed the 1,000,000 pages threshold by my 50th birthday.

Off to read.

azr.

13 January, 2023 0

Shared adventures

There’s so new plans brewing for me share my experience thru reading 1,000,000 pages, and I’m glad to say, that this journey wouldn’t be made alone.

I’ll keep some of the details shrouded in mystery, but what I can say is that my friend from loqueleemos.com has joined me in what we are calling “joint readings”

Our first task is to go thru the first four Omnibus editions of the famous Warhammer Fantasy heroes Gotrek and Felix, this unlikely pair of the Dwarf killing machine and his human poet and sometimes warrior companion is sure has been a delightful read.