Scribblings

What I'm reading in print and on the web (January 2026)

A new year means a stack of new books on my “to read” list. I’m also curating my “pre-order” list of books that are releasing this year. For example, I’ve pre-ordered Carl Trueman’s new book, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity. I’ve also received a pre-pub copy of Hannah King’s new book, Feasting on Hope: How God Sets a Table in the Wilderness.

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I’m reading The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms our Kids’ Learning — and How to Help Them Thrive Again. It’s a book that is making me angry. Not at the author, but at the current state of education. With our move back to Canada, we’ve reentered the public school system (not too many options for Classical hybrid models in the middle of the prairies), and it’s pretty dreadful. If you thought Chromebooks were bad, just wait until you have a kid in a classroom in which the teacher is using AI to create assignments. That’s right, no textbooks, no workbooks, no established curriculum. Instead, the teacher is creating assignments with Chat GPT. And when the students don’t get what the assignment is asking, the response from the teacher is, “I guess I should have proofread the assignment first.”

I would love for there to be a school or an entire school system that decided to get the Chromebooks and the chatbots out of the classroom. Go back to Hilroy notebooks and battered copies of classic books and math textbooks so heavy that you can give someone a concussion if you throw it across the room.

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Even though I’m firmly in the “physical books are the best books” camp (Thank you, my dear friends who helped us load and unload 2,135 books during our move!) there is a place for audio books: road trips. The family listened to several audio books on our long drive to Florida over Christmas.

First, we listened to the newly released full-cast production of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was fantastic. Kit Harington as Gilderoy Lockhart and Hugh Laurie as Dumbledore were amazing. My only quibble is that I wasn’t a fan of the voice of Snape, but that’s mainly because my brain expects Alan Rickman (RIP).

Second, we listened to The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Chuck has read the Tiffany Aching series to the kids, and he even does the voices, but it was a treat to listen to Stephen Briggs as he brought all the characters to life, especially whiny Wentworth. The Wee Free Men also has my favourite Terry Pratchett quote of all time:

What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.