Uh-oh

With two days left on the tenth week of this year of reading and watching my total so far I can only say, uh-oh.

I have a measly 180 of the 1,246 pages projected for this week, and to make things even trickier, I am on page 322 of 701 of this week’s book, Dune: The Machine Crusade.

Now there’s a choice to be made, do I focus on finishing the book or on the page count.

Let’s see how things develop over today, but rest assured, there’s going to be some intense reading over this really rainy weekend.

Off to read.

azr.

A not so epic start

To be completely honest, I have been struggling with my reading.

The start to this month’s gargantuan task has been disappointing to say the least.

With three weeks left in the year, and 8,282 pages to read I think this is a great opportunity to face this challenge head on.

Yesterday I had a glimmer of hope, for my total was 186 pages this combined with two graphic novels under my belt, things are looking up.

Concerning my numbers, I have a total of 4,760 total pages for this year, but the bad news is that I’m 30 days behind schedule , and with 179 days left on this year of reading, it is time to hit warp speed.

For today there’s some epicness ahead, I’ll try to make some headway with Reaper’s Gale, currently on page 371, and begin with a series of the She-Devil with a Sword, Queen Sonja, have been eyeing but haven’t got around to reading it.

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For now, I am off to read, and take this cold and rainy December day as a good omen.

azr.

(Y-12) Some updates

I hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy.

I have found more challenging than I thought this little project, reaching 30,000 pages in my year of reading by April 20th, with the state of things, and the massive news of people suffering all over the world, it’s kind of hard getting your head on straight.

Because I am not a health care provider, the only thing I can do to chip in is to stay home and try to avoid large crowds, and hopefully, this terrible disease will slow down.

Also, today will have been my dear mother’s birthday, she should have turned 66, I missed her dearly, but I know in my heart that she is toasting with a nice glass of red wine with my father, somewhere, in their beautiful purple desert.

With that in mind, I should try to calm down, and read some more this coming weeks.

For now, I can say that I had a fairly productive week.

My initial number, back on March 26, was 7,774 pages to go to reach my coveted goal of 30,000 pages.

This morning I still have 7,155 pages to go.

I only what to clarify that I am using net total pages, you can read an explanation in my about page.

Today’s itinerary will cover some X-men, some Dragonlance, and some new material that I found in my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

I am off to read, stay safe.

azr.

 

 

 

(Y-11) the state of things

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.

(Y-11) tonight’s reading session

I will try to chip away at my time and pages and start the weekend with a good rhythm.

So, I’ll dip my head into one of my favorite stomping grounds, the universe of Sandman, created by my all time favorite author Neil Gaiman, and for these particular new series,he gave the creative reigns to some really amazing teams.

I’ll continue with the Lucifer series, written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Max and Sebastian Fiumara.

As the previous spinoff series of the Prince of Darkness, written by the amazing Mike Carey, this new adventure promises big things.

now off to read.

azr

(Y-11) Old School Monday…Eternals (1976-1978) # 1

Hello again, as last Monday, today I pick up an comic released before 1981.

This time it was Eternals by the legendary writer and illustrator Jack Kirby, if you are not familiar with the “King”, well let’s say that he helped, along with Stan Lee, shaped comic-books as we know them.

This series is about some celestial beings than have come to earth as protector of humanity from their arch nemesis The Deviants.

This issue introduces The Eternals as this ancient mythological beings and a bit of their purpose and origin.

In the picture below you can catch some reminiscent of the Incan culture in the temple of the Eternals.

Jack Kirby’s style is so peculiar and original that you can see the influence still today.

Although this was a very short issue, only 17 pages, it gives you enough to pull you into the vast mythology of this elusive group of “superheroes”, which, are rumored to play a big role in the upcoming Marvel cinematic universe movies.

But until that becomes official you can read the complete series by Mr.Kirby, or, the 2006 series by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.

Both available at Comixology.

For next Monday I will read the first issue from 1972 of Swamp Thing.

Now I’m off to read and enjoy the soothing sound of rain.

azr.

(Y-11) flowing into the weekend (day 7 of 31)

Just started the weekend in the best manner I can think of, reading on a rainy day sipping on a large cup of coffee.

Let me start off with the update of the daily reading challenge, from which I am glad to inform that it was victorious again, this time around the total pages for yesterday was 168.

My plans for this weekend of reading are as follow, make some headway with the Gardens of the Moon, currently on page 346 of 627, read the two latest volumes of the manga series The Legend of Zelda.

Already started with Minish Cap/Phantom Hourglass

Finally, I am going back to my roots and read the new collections of the now classic Spawn series by legendary writer/artist Todd McFarlane.

This was some of the first comics that I collected, and taking advantage that some of the collected editions are available on Kindle Unlimited, well, it is throwback time.

In other news, I finished Doctor Strange Epic Collection: Afterlife, and with this, I am inching closer to the 4,000-page mark.

3,769 pages to be precise.

Here I leave you with some images of the closing tale of Doctor Strange Collection, with some fantastic art by P. Craig Russell.

 

Another cool thing that happened, and being a sucker for statistics, is that Spotify sends me an email detailing my year of listening.

And apparently I spent 26,496 minutes, that is 441 hours of enjoying some sweet groves.

The song that kicked off this year was Real Love Baby by Father John Misty, and the first band I discovered was Lo Moon, if you have not listened to neither, do yourself a favor and do so immediately.

And lastly, the band that I listen to the most was, drum roll please, Arctic Monkeys, with a total of 52 hours, mostly enjoying their new album Tranquillity Base: Hotel & Casino.

I wonder what new bands are waiting for me on the never-ending digital musical landscape, well, I have a whole year to find out.

Now back to reading.

azr.

(Y-11) In the beginning

365 days and 53,000 pages are ahead of me.

On the closing of this first day of the eleventh year of reading , I can only feel grateful for still be doing this.

I have a lot of energy and ready to tackle whatever this year has to offer.

The good news is that I finished the first graphic novel of the year, Kick-Ass Volume 1, and with it the first 216 pages of the year.

Also, I am preparing to dive deep into one of the most complex and critically acclaimed fantasy world, The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

I’ll start with the first book, The Gardens of Moon by Steve Erikson .

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

(Y-10) 1 day…To the sound of rain.

Tomorrow is the last day of this year of reading.

It has been a blast and hopefully I will reach one last milestone to close out the year in style.

Right now, we are hole up in the house because what is left from hurricane Sergio is pouring some rain in our fair city, according to expert by tomorrow morning there is the probability of a couple of inches of total rain.

You might think that amount of rain is insignificant, but for our desert it’s a shit load.

I will take this time to finish reading my last graphic novels and making the final count of my pages.

By tomorrow night I’ll post my final numbers, toast this amazing year goodbye and get ready for what’s next.

Now back to reading.

azr.