This is it, the final leg of my fourteen year of reading.
It has become a tradition for me to intensify my pace when the final days of each year loom over the horizon, and that moment starts right now. So you may ask, how things are shaping up? Well let me paint you a picture.
I have a total of 53,729 of the 64,942 pages of my goal. That leaves 11,213 left to read on this last 50 days, around 220 pages per day. My average right now is around 171 pages per day, so there’s some catching-up to do.
This will coincide with the other self-imposed challenge that has been lurking around for quite some time, read three times the weekly quota, which would be a total for each week of 3,738 pages, and a shiny badge at the end. The design for the badges are been development as we speak, and let me tell you, they are going to be magnificent.
I know that this task pretty doable, my total for this week is 2,185 pages, that’s 312 pages per day, and with maybe a couple of hundred pages more before the day ends, this is shaping up to be a successful outing.
I’ll try to get my first badge next week, and hopefully, with under 8,000 pages left, and a couple of reading marathons fast approaching, the goal will be met.
I haven’t decided if this next challenge is crazy or stupid, heck, maybe is both, the important part is that I’m definitely doing it.
For the passed few weeks, I have been toying with the idea of reading three times the total weekly page quota for three straight weeks, yeah, I like that kind of thing with numbers.
That means that each week, my total will need to be 3,738, and 11,214 total pages for the three-week expanse. The perfect timing to close-out really early the total projected for the year.
Each week will earn me a badge, more on that later, and the rules are simple, three straight weeks, if I don’t get there, the game restarts, and the badges go away.
This week is shaping-up really good, yesterday, I had a total of 361 pages, and today, my total, with a few hours of reading left, is 337 pages.
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.
I think, or at least I hope, that the results of the month of March are an indication of where my reading is going, not only for this dwindling year, but in the broader picture.
I finished with a total of 6,632 pages, that’s 1,114 pages over the projected total of 5,518 pages. This leaves 2,751 surplus pages from passed months, and 8,091 pages to get this year back in balance.
Now for the 50,000-page milestone, I must say that this one is really special, not only is the first time I pass this mark but it’s a benchmark for the upcoming 9 years of reading.
The honor of getting passed this very important milestone was the amazing graphic novel Snow Angels, created by two of my favorite creators, Jeff Lemire and Jock.
Hope is restored, and now to ho get those 64,000 pages.
With the March page quota already cover, and for what I’m truly happy, the only thing left to close-out this month as a complete success is the matter of around 16 hours left on the clock.
That means around 6 hours for each day left of the Month, I have been faced with bigger challenges.
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.
Yesterday was Tolkien Reading Day. I set out to do two things, try to read Children of Húrin in its entirety, and try an eat all six Hobbit meals.
As we lack extensive and mystical Forests, I live in the desert, the next best thing was to go to the urban park right in the middle of the city.
The reading went pretty well, read around 250 pages of the 320. The meals where a whole success. Here are the photos of all of them.
First Breakfast Second Breakfast ElevensesLuncheon Luncheon Dinner & Supper Dinner & SupperDinner & Supper
Dinner & Supper was the most amazing part of the day, firstly because I got to eat and drink some artisanal beer in a new place called Artística Brewing Co., and most importantly ,I was joined by my lovely wife to end the festivities right.
Today my plan is to finish the Children of Húrin, probably the last book of The Farseer Trilogy, and be 200 pages shy of the 50,000-page mark for the year. If those two books go down, I’ll reach the 400,000-page and start to work toward the first half of this lengthy challenge.
I´m more than excited for tomorrows festivities. It’s going to be a Tolkien Reading Day to remember, and hopefully it will become a yearly tradition of reading and eating like a Hobbit.
I don’t an specific plan, but, the two things that are a most are: reading The Children of Húrin in its entirety, and indulging in the six meals of the Hobbits custom, which are, according to the books, Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, and Dinner, this last is going to be special, there´s a plan with my lovely wife of food and pints worthy of the Green Dragon.
Now the impossible for today is to finish the last book of the Farseer Trilogy, currently on page 672 of 829, and to start off tomorrow with a fresh slate, let’s see how the day plays out.
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.
Finally!!! I did it, year fourteen is now officially my best year of reading, and with 79 days left on it, the future is bright.
My current total is 47,765, surpassing year number one by only 59 pages. I have special thanks to give to two amazing stories, the first volume of the Manga series Vindland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, and the third volume of Wasteland by Anthony Johnston, a post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi Western with mutants and all the good stuff, plus, the covers are made by the fantastic Ben Templesmith.
For this upcoming days, I´ll be working on a couple of goals, the obvious one, which I have been dragging on for the couple of weeks, the 50,000-page milestone for this year, but more importantly, there´s only 1,658 pages left to reach 400,000 total pages. Both goals are the driving force for this week.
lostinamillionpages.com 