Books, caffeine and 1,000,000 pages to read
Lucky day 13 in my countdown to the end of this year of reading.
Yesterday I read a total of 75 of the 253 pages that I had as a goal.
That leaves me with 3,471 to reach the final goal of the year.
For today, I plan to read some new single issues and a Batman graphic novel from my TBR pile.
Hopefully,I’ll hit my goal for today, 267 pages.
For now, I am off to read.
azr.
It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Batman, consequently he is not my favorite DC comics character, that spot is held by Swamp Thing, but on a monthly basis Batman is responsible for a big chunk of my total pages.
On this occasion this volume is a compilation of Batman stories with some sort of supernatural twist.
All the stories are written by Peter Milligan, an along for the ride there are some legendary illustrators like Jim Aparo, Kieron Dwyer, and Tom Mandrake, just to name a few.
The title name of this collection, Dark Knight , Dark City, it’s a three part storyline of Batman chasing after the Riddler as he tries to summon a dark and powerful figure.
I can remember these three single issues, Batman #452 to #454, very vividly from my days working on a comic book shop, yes I had my dream job in my 20’s, I was drawn by Mike Mignola’s dark and beautiful play with color and Shadows.
The other astounding story is Golem, a two part storyline where Batman tracks down a mysterious figure who is taking care of a particular group of evil doers.
In all, with the exception of some minor problems with the edition and translation, this volume is a must for all Batman fans.
Now ,off I go, to look for my next adventure.
azr.
I have exactly two weeks to go on my year of reading.
My main focus will be to surpass my best year of reading, the very first one with a total of 47,706 pages.
I have 3,626 pages in front of me, that means that I should read at least 241 pages today.
To aid me in this fine Sunday I will pull out the big guns, Batman and Drizzt Do’Urden.
Wish me luck.
azr.
It has been a week since my last update, I promise to write more often, but it was a week to run errands and stockpile our pantry, and it was crazy busy.
So I’ll just jump right into it.
I have 4,101 pages to reach 40,000, and 29 days to do so, that’s 141 pages per day, I like those odds.
This past week I have read some amazing things.
I continued with Brian Wood’s Vertigo comics series Northlanders, and currently reading the fourth volume, The Plague Widow, and still have another 2 volumes left available on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Also, I finished another story arc of Batman written by the amazing Tom King, The Tyrant Wing, What is Bane up to?
But the highlight of the week was the tenth volume of my favorite comic book, Hellboy, which includes a story with the legendary art of Richard Corben, The Crooked Man, exploring some American folklore for the first time in the series.
Today I plan to read the seventh volume of the current run of Detective Comics, Batmen Eternal, written by James Tynion IV, which has become really quickly one of my favorite authors writing on the DC universe.
On the book front, I expect to finish soon with The Adversary, currently on page 436, an start with the next chapter of The Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Bonehunters.
Now concerning my numbers for this year.
I have a total of 35, 339 pages of 41,665 that was my proposed goal for the year, and with 103 days left, I am more that confident that I’ll hit that mark, and according to my projections, and if my current pace holds up, I will finish with around 49,719 pages, more that 2,000 pages more than my best year.
I also made some progress with my date to reach 1,000,000 pages, right now my projected date is December 15 of 2045, which is 5,307 days more than my original plan, but it came down from 5,321 days that I calculated about ten days ago.
That would mean that I would be 64 years 6 months, and 10 days old when I reach my goal, it stills needs work but I have gained ground steadily over the last few months.
With that in mind, I am off to read, because I am not getting any younger.
azr.
I have finally reached the first 10,000 pages of this twelve year of my reading project.
My current total for registered pages is 10,181
It took me 90 days, and I am just gearing up for what comes next.
The other thing I set out to achieve yesterday, was to have a 500-page day.
I am glad to inform you that, CHALLENGE COMPLETED, this was thanks to my progress in The New Jedi Order book, Agents of Chaos I, and three amazing graphic novels.
The first two were from the current run of Batman: Detective, in which Bruce Wayne is haunted by a villain from his how creation, Karma, he can read minds and recks havoc on all of the Bat-Family, especially on the Signal, who is badly wounded, and on the other volume, Batman teams up with a known nemesis, Two-Face, who is struggling between his good and evil side, while they battle a new threat to Gotham, the Kobra.
The third graphic novel was the eight-volume of my favorite comic book series of all time, Hellboy, in Darkness Calls our favorite demon battles the witch Baba-Yaga, who is out for blood, or more specifically an eye of Hellboy.
While all of these events are unfolding, a much bigger threat is brewing underneath the surface, and it will change Hellboy’s destiny forever.
Thanks to these amazing reads, which I did between plays of the two playoffs games of the NFL, in which, the San Francisco 49ers won easily over Minnesota Vikings, and the Tennessee Titans stunted the Baltimore Ravens, I could close the gap on my reading schedule, now I am only 4 days behind, and the calculated date for achieving 500,000 pages, came down from March 24, 2028, to February 25, 2028, that’s a month of gained time.
For today, I have planned pretty much the same, read my ass off, while I watch the Green Bay Packers take on Seattle Seahawks, and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Houston Texans, this will determine next week’s Conference Championship games, and eventually the Superbowl.
So today I will be doing two of my favorites things, watch football, and read.
I am off to read.
azr.
Less than two weeks to go in this year of reading, and I have some work to do.
My current total is 44,085, that means that I am 3,621 pages to surpass my best year, and 8,915 pages to reach this year goal.
The immediate goal is to surpass my best year of reading, because, honestly almost 9,000 pages in 13 days are too far fetched.
Right now, I’ll focus on finish House of Chains, currently on page 911, and about 2 hours left of reading, which will give me 1,022 pages to add to my total.
And to complement that, I’ll read some comic books and graphic novels, some of my TBR pile, and some new ones.
The latest volume of the Spanish version of Hellboy, book number 7, was an early gift from our friends of Lo que leemos , to celebrate our 11th anniversary of this crazy little project.
As I write these words, it has started to rain over my beautiful desert, I’ll take it as a good omen.
Off to read.
azr.
I woke up to a beautiful cloudy morning over my precious desert.
The perfect day to curl up and read.
And to top it off, it is Batman Day, the Dark Knight is celebrating 80 years.
I will be reading a couple of alternates stories in commemoration.
Now I would like to talk about my numbers and the almost end of this year of reading.
Right now, I have 22 days left on this eleventh year of reading, and my total is 43,617 pages.
That means that I am 4,089 pages away from reaching my best year of reading, and 9,383 pages to reach my ultimate goal for this year, which is 53,000 pages.
It is a monumental task, but I’ll try to get as close as possible and enjoy every second of it.
On a positive note, I have surpassed the original goal for reading that I assign to each year way back when I started keeping track of my reading, this original number is 43,500, and it was calculated thinking of reaching 1,000,000 pages by the time I turned 50, thus, I needed 43,500 pages each year, this is the second time I reach this number.
Now, I am off to read.
azr.
Hello, and welcome to another old school Monday.
First of all, sorry for last week, I had some technical problems, but I am back and hopefully it will not happen again.
So, for this week, I go back to one of my all-time favorite characters, the Dark Knight himself, and the first issue of his own book.
It covers, in a really brief moment, Batman’s origin, you know, the whole crime alley thing, and the death parents.
This issue also features the first appearances of two of the most iconic counterparts of Batman, The Joker and Catwoman,back then she was only known as The Cat.
With this we finally get to see some supervillains in action.
For me, this book marks the beginning of one of the most amazing characters ever created, and after 80 years of adventures, it is refreshing to see where it all started.
As a bonus, we also get to see one of the recurrent villains that is still present till this day, Hugo Strange.
As I said, this book is full action from page one.
Now, I’ll get back to it, if you have any suggestions of what I should read for old school Monday, just leave a comment, but remember, they must be pre-1981.
Off to read, and to feel anxious about my total page count.
azr.
Hello, and welcome to another old school Monday.
This time I read the origin story of one of the most iconic sidekicks in all of comic book history.
I am of course referring to the Boy Wonder himself, Robin.
No other than Dick Grayson, the original Robin.
He is adopted and trained by Batman after his parents, the trapeze artist known as the flying Graysons, fall to their tragic death, and as it is later discover, it was the work of mobsters, which, again, play the role of villains, no quirky costumed villains yet.
This is an early title of the adventure if the dynamic duo, and on this time period, they shared this comic book with another more classic Detectives.
To me, Dick Grayson, is one of my favorite characters of the Bat-Family, but not quite on this personification, it will come later, when he turns into the rogue superhero, Nightwing.
For next week old school Monday, I’ll dabble into the first appearance of what it is consider the most iconic villain in Batman’s history.
See you all next week.
Off to read.
azr.
Hello, and welcome to another old school.
Today’s entry is about the legendary Dark Knight, and he’s first appearance on number 27 of the famous series, which recently reached number 1000, no easy feat.
In his appearance by Bat-Man, as he is referred to, we see another legendary character from the Batman mythos, Commissioner Gordon, as he is having a conversation with young Bruce Wayne, he is call to serve a murder.
Wayne jumps into action and stops the diabolical plots of the very dangerous Crime Syndicate.
One thing I can see in this early superhero comics is the lack of the archetypal villains we are used to now, all fun of bravado and colorful costumes, the villains in this early stories are represented mainly by mobsters or really greedy sons.
But as with any Batman stories I always enjoy seeing the Dark Knight in action.
This story was first published on March, 1939 and it began a history than that this year turned 80 years old.
The creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger is more alive than ever, and with some amazing writers and illustrators still passionate about this character, it will be no surprise that in future generations they will celebrating another 80 years of stories.
Next old school Monday will stay with in the Bat Family, for now I’ll keep it a surprise.
Off to read.
azr.
Lost In A Million Pages 