scRambled - Reading lists

I love reading books. They're a great source of continuing education (something else I love), entertainment, and escape. I especially love my Kindle, which enables me to read without all the distractions of a phone (or the risk of paper-cuts!).

I wanted to start keeping track a few years ago, and since I have a pretty lousy memory, I figured I should make some sort of notes or write reviews. I realized it would be incredibly painful to try to maintain it in one giant HTML page, so I broke my rules and made this into a database. The summaries pop up (using magical AJAX) when you click on a book title. Plus I found a cool table-sorting Javascript, so the tables are sortable and filterable.

They aren't super-in-depth book reviews or summaries; sometimes they're not even about the book much at all! It really depends on the mood I was in when I wrote the review. But anyway, enough of my babblings... onto the books!

2019 - During the Great Scramble, the Web Comics and Graphic Novels have come over from E to reside on the Reading list now!

2020 - I had a lot of fun visually mapping out a couple of Ryan North's choose-your-own-adventure books. I thought I might start a whole slew of maps like this, but alas it has not yet come to pass. Until then, enjoy the maps for Romeo and/or Juliet and To Be Or Not To Be.

2021 - A new type of entry has appeared on this list - the "Short Story" - identified by slightly shorter fonts, represents a, well, short story I've read and wanted to keep track of, apart from random large collections.

2023-24 - Spent the year going through the Colson Fellows program which included reading 10 different books about Christian worldview and apologetics. Additionally, I've been using GoodReads more, so I've been a bit lax about including books on this list. I do intend to add them eventually, since this is my primary "did I ever read that?" list / reminder for myself.

[edit]

View all books in a big table or search here:

Recently-read Books

F/NF Source Date Title
FKindle11/17/2024The Wild Robot Escapes - Peter Brown
FKindle11/10/2024The Wild Robot - Peter Brown
FKindle11/04/2024System Collapse - Martha Wells
NFKindle10/11/2024Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl
FKindle09/30/2024Murderbot - the Novellas - Martha Wells
NFPaper09/08/2024Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better - Brant Hansen
NFKindle04/30/2024Another Gospel - Alisa Childers
NFKindle04/30/2024Restoring All Things - John Stonestreet / Warren Cole Smith
NFKindle04/01/2024Knowing God - J.I. Packer
NFKindle03/31/2024A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World - John Stonestreet / Brett Kunkle
NFKindle03/15/2024Our Bodies Tell God's Story - Christopher West
NFKindle03/01/2024Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity - Nabeel Qureshi
NFKindle02/29/2024How Now Shall We Live - Charles Colson / Nancy Pearcey
NFKindle12/28/2023Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home - Glenn S. Sunshine
NFKindle12/27/2023The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims - Rebecca McLaughlin
NFAudio10/31/2023Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution - Carl R. Trueman
NFKindle09/30/2023Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth - Thaddeus J. Williams
NFKindle07/31/2023Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
FKindle04/11/2023The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - Barry Schwartz
FKindle01/07/2023Sweet Tooth - Jeff Lemire

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Excellent Web Comics I've Seen Recently

(psst, of course Dilbert is included)

Doghouse Diaries

Amanda liked this one so much, she put it up on my closet and added a label of her own!

Other Favorite Doghouse Comics

Chuck & Beans

Not sure how I got into this one; they don't update too often, but every once in awhile there's a gem.

Other Favorite Chuck & Beans

XKCD

I saw this one at work awhile ago, and it generated a laugh, though the other comics on xkcd.com are even more risque than Not From Concentrate, so be warned...

Other Favorite XKCD Comics

Not From Concentrate

This one, from NFC, seemed very appropriate, as I saw it shortly after Epic stopped offering donuts on the first Monday of the month. He doesn't seem to update anymore, but I keep it on my RSS reader just in case... waiting for the day...

>

Feb 2014 - Whoa! Google Chrome thinks nfccomic.com has malware. Crazy! And not true. Still, I changed the image to be self-hosted, so hopefully Chrome quits flagging my page for malware.

May 2014 - Aw, the site seems to be officially dead. Maybe I should've saved off my favorites instead of just linking them. Aha! Thank you, Wayback Machine!

Other Favorite NFC Comics

Basic Instructions

Basic Instructions are usually a little wordy, but I still enjoy them 3 times a week. Unfortunately, Scott has retired from the comic (for now!) but is still posting the whole backlog on the same schedule.

Graphic Novels

I only recently (~2013) got into comics, and I still wouldn't say I'm into them, at least not as much as my comic-loving nephew would like. But I'm starting to read them a bit more these days. There aren't many truly science-fiction comics, but there are plenty of psychological-thriller-esque books that tease my brain.

Everyone seems to have their list of favorite books they're reading. I'm not sure why anyone cares. I guess if you're odd enough to be reading this site about me, maybe you like weird, strange comics like these, too. I started with The Walking Dead (after getting into it via my pastor, of all people). I then read through all of Kirkman's Invincible that was available at the time. Perhaps that's a basis for my bias, but I've seen several Image comics that I really like.

Anyway, most of these (and many more) are now included in the main reading list above (and the Full list), but just in case I think about keeping this up-to-date, this fun table at least has images!

Metaphase - Chip Reece

The man who got me into comics himself, Chip, has authored Metaphase - a great little book about a superhero coming to terms with having a son with Down Syndrome and about his son's desire to be just like his dad, ultimately rising to become a hero himself in the story. I'm anxiously awaiting a sequel!

Hawkeye - Matt Fraction

In the airport for a work trip, a coworker asked if I knew which superhero was from my hometown. I had no idea Hawkeye was allegedly born in Waverly, IA! By default he's become my favorite superhero, and though I've read all the various one-shots, I'll always like the series I read first, the 2013 set by Matt Fraction.

Complex - Michael Malkin

This was a fun comic about a mysterious town where people seem to be living out some sort of experiment; a drug resets certain townspeople's memories while the others seem to fight against a system of injustice. I backed a 2nd volume on Kickstarter and was supposed to have a cameo in it; still waiting to see if/how that turns out.

The Last West - Evan Young & Lou Iovino

Heard of this just as I was getting into Kickstarter. I meant to back it, but time ran out before I got around to it. Sounds like a really fun story about "...a world in which all cultural and technological innovation has ground to a halt" Ooh! Hey, it's on Comixology now. I shall have to dig into this! (And see if I remember to come back and update this after I've read some of it!)

Mind the Gap - Jim McCann

It's been so long since I read a volume or two of this, but it was very intriguing, about a comatose girl who experiences a sort of "gap" world between this life and the next, as she tries to discover who tried to kill her.

iZombie - Chris Roberson & Michael Allred

After The Walking Dead, I'm a LITTLE into zombie comics, though they seem in quite plentiful supply. This one was a fun story that turned into a WAY better TV series. Well, the TV series has taken it away from the comic line quite a bit, but both the comic and the TV series are great on their own.

Lazarus - Greg Rucka & Michael Lark

Part of why I like this is that when I went to my first LCBS (local comic book store) after getting interested in comics, I picked up the first two issues. Who knows, maybe they'll be worth big bucks some day? Really interesting story about a sort of post-apocalypical US which has been broken up into different regions owned by families which each have a "Lazarus" - not really a family member but with amazing healing / regenerative capabilities. We don't quite know how it works, but we learn a bit more every issue.



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