Daily Journal: July 31,2023

All in all, the weekend was really productive for my reading. I could tally almost 14 hours of total reading, but more importantly, I got to page 936 of Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, not quite the original goal, but a triumph.

Also, I finished the novella A Frost of Fear and Fortitude, which had been my favorite story from the Levanthria series, that dark spin on Saint Nick was just perfect. Hopefully, A.P. Beswick will make some more stories, besides the upcoming A Frost of Death and Deceit, to be released on December 1, 2023.

The only task left for the month of July is to reach the 12,000 net pages. Right now, I’m looking at 286 pages to do so. The best course of action is to read a bit of Mr. Moore’s book and finish the night with some graphic novels.

With that in mind.

Off to read

azriel

Daily Journal: July 30,2023

Yesterday was a very productive day of reading, from the challenge of reading those elusive 24 hours over the weekend, a monumental task that only achieved twice in several tries, I was able to rack up 9 hours 25 minutes, and 14 seconds, not bad for not really trying.

Hopefully, today will turn out to be at least as productive as yesterday, if the clocks passed the 12 hours mark, then I’ll be more than satisfied. The truth of the matter is that the true goal is to hit those mini challenges to close out the week of reading on a high note.

Speaking of which, and as posted in yesterday’s entry, the four challenges go as follows:

• Reach page 950 of Alan Moore’s Jerusalem (currently on page 852)
• Finished the third book of the Levantria Series A Kingdom of Courage and Cruelty
• Read the novella “A Frost of Fear and Fortitude” (currently on page 43 of 128)
• Read 12,000 net pages on the month of July, my current total is 11,525, leaving only 475 pages for the next two days.

On the broader picture there was some forward momentum. In the next milestone, to reach 750,000 pages, the new date is set to be October 16, 2030, pretty close to the deadline of the whole project, but has decreased by 56 days in the last two weeks. My goal to reach this next waystation is on April, 2027. which puts me 1,266 days behind, things that doesn’t make me sweat, judging by my reading rhythm, I’ll get way faster than that.

For the major prize, the current date of achieving the herculean task is now on February 17, 2038. The last time I calculated this projection, back on June 12, my end date was February of 2039, that means that over a month of reading I have close the gap to a whole year less, pretty impressive if you ask me.

The main focus of today will be Alan Moore´s Jerusalem, and lighten the mood, I´ll throw in some graphic novels. I have considering revisiting one of my favorite Green Lantern story-arcs, Blackest Night, written by Geoff Johns back in 2009, and it shaped Green Lantern as we know it today, which remains one of the few series that I read from the major two comic publishers.

Off to read.

azriel

Daily Journal: July 29, 2023

I know that in order for these posts to be called a “Daily Journal,” they should be exactly that, but there’s so many things to read that sharing my daily ranting just skips my mind.

The good news is that I have already reached the 20,000-page mark for this year of reading. Those gears are moving just perfectly. There’s still the possibility of a 100,000-page year, but I will not get ahead of myself.

For now, I’ll focus on the task at hand, reading 12,000 net pages in the dwindling month of July. This leaves me with 1,258 pages to read in the next 3 days, and just for fun, I’ll throw in another attempt to achieve 24 hours of reading over the weekend to spice things up.

In the mix of all of these, I have three more mini challenges to reach over the weekend

• Reach page 950 of Alan Moore’s Jerusalem (currently on page 700)
• Finish the third book of the Levantria Series A Kingdom of Courage and Cruelty (currently on page 130 of 238)
• Read the short story “A Frost of Fear and Fortitude” set also in the Levanthria series, a retelling of not so jolly old Saint Nick, the monster hunter

I have a lot on my plate for the weekend. The only thing that I can assure is that it is going to be very fun.

Off to read.

azriel

Daily Journal: July 25, 2023

It has been a couple of really slow reading. This is mainly because my focus has been on the behemoth task of tackling Mr. Moore’s intricate novel Jerusalem. The setting of his native Northampton, going thru several ages of the once Saxon capital in England, has been quite the challenge. The second part book, which I’m currently navigating, is focused on some of the dead residents of the enigmatic town.

To say it is a difficult endeavor is an understatement, but as with all of the work of Mr. Moore, it’s worth the challenge. Being realistic, my goal is to reach at least 75% of the book. The original plan was to finish in July, but with such a complicated story, it’s best to take it slowly.

What comes next on my reading queue? that’s a great question. There are three possible paths to follow. The first will be to pick up where I left the Dragonlance series. The second would be to read the next two books of The Vorrh Trilogy by the late Brian Catling. The third option is to continue the adventures of Glen Cook’s Black Company.

That decision will be made once my journey thru the treacherous streets of Northampton ends.

Off to read.

azriel

Daily Journal: July 24, 2023

To be honest, I have been meaning to get back sooner to share my progress of this crazy project of mine, but my focus was so caught up on getting the first milestone, which I did as announced on my last post.

So, on July 14 of 2023, after 5,392 days of reading, the first 500,000 pages were achieved. For me, it was such a joyous occasion, and having great people around that have shared the process, some for a short while, some for a very long time, it made it all that much special.

Now, I have some new challenges ahead of me, including the next 500,000 pages. This next step will have to be achieved just a fraction of the time, 2,874 days to be exact. But fear not, judging by how the first 48 days of the current year of reading, I’ll be fine.

Speaking of that, my current total is 19,980 pages for year sixteen. If by some miraculous feat I keep this pace up, I’ll be reaching in November of this year the total quota of 64,850 pages. Pretty impressive

Obviously, I can’t sit still even in these booming times. My main focus is cutting down the days that my schedule has fallen behind. Currently, the projections for achieving the 1,000,000-page mark are on March 12, 2038. That puts me 2,472 days behind my 50th birthday

There’s so much more reading left to do, but the tides are changing, and I will jump head on at these momentum and ride the waves to that coveted goal.

Off to read.

azriel

Daily Journal: June 18, 2023

Once again, I find myself coming back to this cathartic device, which is even more necessary nowadays. There isn´t anything, besides reading, that can put my mind at ease faster that sharing my nonsense in written form, making a little noise in hopes that someone will find some solace between these lines.

With my reading from yesterday and today, I made some significant steps toward the main focus of the upcoming months, getting to the 500,000-page milestone no later than the middle of September. The good news is that, according to my projections, the new date for reaching the said goal is now October 27, 2023. There are only 12,022 pages between me and the first half of my project.

Today´s reading has been filled with really diverse material. I finished No Country for Old Men, by the late great, which is still really hard to think that this week he passed away, Cormac McCarthy, this was a re-read to celebrate his illustrious career that will live eternally on the brutally beautiful prose that he created. The other book that I’m working on is the behemoth written by Alan Moore, Jerusalem. Expanding 1,255 pages, currently on page 84, it explores the streets of Mr. Moore´s native city of Northampton, elevating them to mythical proportions. My goal for today is to reach page 142, following a schedule to finish it no later than July 3.

As always, and I know that´s pretty late on my neck of the woods, I´ll try to squeeze in some graphic novels in between the slow progress that novels represent. For tonight´s menu there´s volumes 6 and 7 of the manga series Battle Angel Alita, thankfully, I did not let the not-so-highly regarded movie adaptation deter me from giving the series a chance, it´s pretty fucking awesome.

Off to read.

azr

Daily Journal: May 13, 2023

After a much needed rest, I’m back to try and conquer this year’s goals, and more importantly, getting back to my previous writing rhythm with these daily entries.

Today’s reading has been a bit slower than what I had in mind coming into the weekend, but it’s better not to focus on what I haven’t done and instead try to salvage a bit of the day with a last effort before succumbing to sleep.

As tradition dictates, the month of May is mainly focused, from May 4 to May 25, to read anything from the many tales from a Galaxy far, far away. I have already finished a couple of books, Ahsoka and Before the Awakening, and right now, I’m working on a pretty interesting story of the training of infamous Sith Lord Darth Maul.

In The Wrath of Darth Maul, we bear witness to the cruel methods of Darth Sidious in order to obtain a worthy apprentice in the dark sith arts. Although this story is not part of the official story canon, there’s a lot of ties to the events that are portrait in both the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars series. Regardless of what the new direction of the universe has taken, I still have plans to go over the more than 100 books from the Legends series. There are some true gems waiting to be discovered.

To top things off , there’s a couple of printed graphic novels that I bought quite some time ago. One from the High Republic era and one from the Bounty Hunters storyline that takes place in the Rebellion era. This little reading marathon is the perfect excuse to jump into what has been going on in the current storyline and maybe try and play catch-up.

Off to read.

azr

Daily Journal: April 23, 2023

I had grand plans for today, being World Book Club, one of the most important celebrations for us book lovers. Although not all what I envisioned for today’s festivities came to be, it was a very productive and fun day.

I still have around 8 pages left on my self-imposed daily quota. This is to finish by the end of April with the magnificent book The Ship of Magic, written by incomparable Robin Hobb. I must confess that there’s was a certain struggle at the beginning of reading to catch the flow of the book, but once the story progressed, it hooks you in.

The progress for today could have been a lot better, right now by total for the day is 336 pages, giving me 1,739 total pages for week number 46 of this year of reading. The optimum outcome for this week would have been finishing with a total of 2,058 pages, an extra 319 pages from where I stand right now, but there’s always another opportunity with the upcoming week.

The month of April, with the calendar pages rapidly falling, leaving a little less than a week to go, has a total of 7,239 pages, leaving me 1,221 pages to read in 6 days. As I said before, these extra pages are with the intention of giving me a fighting chance to reach the coveted 64,000-page mark in the end of the year, considering that after April finishes, I have only 37 days before the finish line.

Tomorrow, I’ll tally all that is missing in my digital log, and probably, if the day’s isn’t a smorgasbord of activities, I will post a “Numbers” entry, that is way overdue.

Off to read.

azr

Daily Journal: April 22, 2023

Just a quick one,so I can get back to reading. The good news is that this week’s quota has already been fulfilled, and then some. My total sits at 1,376, which is 116 extra pages, with one more day and a special day that I have in-store tomorrow, but more on that later.

My total for April is now 6,876. There’s still 1,584 pages left on my secondary objective. It will seem that 9 days to get that vast amount of reading done as an impossible task, but judging by my recent reading rhythm, this will be a cake walk.

To close out the day, I’ll be focusing on hitting the page mark on Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic. I will continue to pursue my goal of finishing by April 30, which gives around 51 daily pages. In celebration of tomorrow’s festivities, I’ll probably set the goal to read double duties, and just for the fun of it, throw a mini marathon with two simple goals, 12 hours of reading, for which the clock is already ticking, and 600 pages to close down some gaps.

Off to read.

azr

Daily Journal: April 21, 2023

Today’s reading started kind of slow. I’ll say it again, if I don’t stick to my routine, my numbers start to dwindle, and to get any sort of rhythm back is nearly impossible. But worry not, there are a couple of very promising hours left in the day, the perfect way to finish any Friday night, spoken as the genuine geek that I am.

Although this slow start, the numbers for the week are looking pretty solid. The current total for week number 46 of the year is 1,183 pages, just 77 shy of the weekly quota. On the monthly reading front, as I posted some days ago, the quota has been achieved, and there’s the new goal of chipping away some of those pesky surplus pages from past weeks in order to balance out the final effort toward the ultimate goal of the year. As of now, I still have 1,777 pages left. It is not impossible but requires some extra effort.

To close today’s effort, I’ll try to read the two volumes left on my shelf of the manga series Berserk, To my disappointment, the next volume, number 20, hasn’t been reprinted, for now I’ll enjoy volumes 18 and 19, for volume number 17 was devoured last night before I went to bed.

I also started, or better said, resumed with Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic to keep things rolling and not neglect this amazing series, I put in place an incentive/badge plan to finish the book by April 30. There’s always room for some rewards in order to sweeten the already satisfaction that is to have the opportunity to get lost in different adventures each and every day.

Off to read.

azr