Category: Rare Books

Hunting for books is like finding buried treasure!

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Accenting the ‘Positive’ in Psychology

Being Married to a Psychologist is interesting, entertaining and educational.

An area of Psychology that has an appeal to me is “Positive Psychology.” Too many times, folks dwell on the negatives, whereas, investing the same amount of time looking at situations from a ‘positive’ point of view is more fruitful.

a great textbook on Positive PsychologyI just picked up a book that covers the subject…. “Character Strength and Virtues” .

From Wikipedia… Positive Psychology is defined:

“The development of the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. Much like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of general psychology, the CSV provides a theoretical framework to assist in developing practical applications for positive psychology. This manual identifies six classes of virtue (i.e. “core virtues”), made up of twenty-four measurable character strengths.

The organization of these virtues and strengths is as follows:

  1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
  2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality
  3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
  4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
  5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility and modesty, prudence, self-regulation
  6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Practical applications of positive psychology include helping individuals and organizations correctly identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain their respective levels of well-being. Therapists, counselors, coaches, and various other psychological professionals can use the new methods and techniques to build and broaden the lives of individuals who are not necessarily suffering from mental illness or disorder.”

Roger Freberg

 

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Abraham Lincoln… what did he know? … and when did he know it?

Captain Riley 1817

Contrary to some revisionist historians, many of the books before and during the Civil War depicted slavery as a central issue from which everything else sprang… so, how did the abolition of slavery become so central a theme to Abraham Lincoln’s vision of a new America? Here is one book that had an influence.

Captain James Riley was the subject of a documentary presented on the History Channel and available for purchase for roughly $24.95. The feature is called “Skeletons on the Sahara.” And there is a book out by the same name.

Here’s how the History Channel refers to Captain Rileys adventures:

“In 1815, a Connecticut merchant ship is run aground off the west coast of Africa. Captured by Arab nomads, Captain James Riley and his crew are sold into brutal slavery and marched across the Sahara Desert, where skin boils, lips blacken and men shrivel to less than 90 pounds. Along the way the Americans will encounter everything that could possibly test them, but Riley and his men will also discover ancient cities, secret oases and a culture largely unknown to the modern world. We’ll take viewers inside the adventure, with realistic recreations shot on location and compelling interviews with descendants of Riley, his crew and the Arabs who held them captive. Includes expert commentary from Dean King, author of the bestselling book of the same name.”

Now, the History Channel did a wonderful job in presenting Captain James Riley’s story… part of the title page of Captain james Riley's Narrativehowever, there is something very special and rare in reading from original work from which the presentation was based.

Originally published in 1817, I was able to obtain an 1836 copy of his revised edition…. or what folks refer to as a ‘working copy’ ( useful for study… but broken in some way). In any event, I was very very grateful to obtain one. However, you can buy a recent printing on Amazon.com.

Just for you, I have set up a page with selected pictures from my copy along with a couple of memorable passages… one passage is on the ritual of circumcision among Jews and Arabs in North Africa… and another passage by the author calling for the ending of slavery in the United States.

Interestingly enough, I found several accounts that Abraham Lincoln had read Riley’s Narrative … and a reference stating that Lincoln held the book in high regard… listing Riley’s narrative among some of his favorites… Pilgrim’s Progress and the Bible.

I have always enjoyed reading history through the eyes of those who lived it.. be it Herodotus or Captain Riley. An amazingly easy read.

Roger Freberg

 

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Romance Novels — ” Geek to Chic”

Geek to Chic

 

Now, I won’t confess to reading many Romance novels…. although I will admit to having read a few.

 I do consider “Pride & Prejudice” to be one of the classics. I particularly enjoyed the Colin Furth video version of roughly ten years ago…. very true to the book. I do suspect that Jane Austin was really having a private joke on the rest of us… she knew Lizzy was marrying Mr. Darcy for his money!

Back to the romance at hand…

Newcomer Shirley Marks has penned “Geek to Chic”….

“When Silicon Valley engineer Nicholas Atwood donates two years’ salary to charity, he is unwillingly thrust into the limelight.

Aware of his social awkwardness and terrified of publically disgracing his upper crust family, he seeks the help of a highly recommended image consultant. Maybe she can turn him into the perfect son, ideal brother, and articulate, gregarious foundation spokesman.

Doctor Kate O’Connor has transformed dozens of nerds into self-confident, socially successful men. Her fool proof method takes monthes, sometimes even years to work it’s magic, but Nick has just one week. Kate knows she is accepting the biggest challenge of her career to take on a project of this magnitude on such short notice, but as she helps uncover Nick’s inner hunk, can she handle the challenge to her heart when her feelings for her turn personal?”

Check it out! Click here or on the above photo…

Classics always start out as somethnig new

Classics always start out as something new…
a reflection of the times and a window
Into another world.

enjoy a good book today

Roger Freberg

 

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Seeing the world for what it is — Children’s Stories

the silly green alligator

Many of us grew up on the classic Grimms Fairy Tells and such… complete with ‘realistic’ violence.

However, when it came to raising our own children… the books that were available were sanitized versions ni which all of the characters lived ‘politely ever after.’

Recently, I had the opportunity to read our local paper written by Jill Kelley of Cox News Service. She somewhat lamented how ‘fairy tales have changed.” I couldn’t help but wonder whether her revelation occurred  before or after her son ‘gasped’ as he watched a PBS show in which someone called someone else ‘stupid.”

Now, I am not ready to drag children through the grimey and violent world that life can be… but we must recognize that understanding that some bad things in the world exist is not at all a bad thing. Most of the problems in the world — seem to me — to be caused by peoples inability to see what is unfolding before their eyes… not because some people see things that don’t exist. Reality is sometimes stares us in the face… and children should be exposed to life incrementally.

I was fairly disgusted with what I read in the bookstores… so much of it was soooo nice… so I embraced the challenge by writing a series of ‘action adventures’ of a favorite animal friend of my daughter Kristin… ‘the silly green alligator.’ I won’t bore you with the details… let’s just say that the alligator did what alligators like to do… eat things… and Kristi ( as I called her then) would be the heroine and ‘rescue’ her cute animal buddies… often violently.

Some people say that this is why she went to West Point, became a combat engineer and likes to play with explosives…. but I say that it is pure coincidence.

I did ensure that my young ladies experienced all the masculine joys of cooking, sewing, cleaning house… as well as the typically feminine activities, such as, martial arts, violent video games, computers, climbing on roofs to watch the stars, football fandom and ‘action’ movies.

 My daughters see the world for what it is… not a perfect place, but a place where they can make their own heaven or a hell…. one brick at a time. It starts by seeing the world honestly…..

 Roger Freberg

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Ride Dr. Cheyne’s wild ‘Chamber Horse’! Yeee-hah!

a forerunner of today's home gymHistory is resplendent with artifacts that help us better understand what life was like in bygone days. The object to the left looks like a chair… but it isn’t. It is a ‘chamber horse.’

For those of you who are fans of Jane Austin, you may have run across this line and wondered… ‘what does it mean?’

“…and I have told Mrs Whitby that if anybody enquires for a chamber horse, they may be supplied at a fair rate (poor Mr Hollis’s chamber horse, as good as new); and what can people want more?”

The chamber horse was sort of a forerunner of today’s modern gym…. and critics say that it was used as infrequently then as many home gyms are today. The ‘horse’ was developed by a doctor named George Cheyne in the early 1700’s. The poles are for hanging onto as you bounce on the series of padded springs… yahoo!

A nice article appears on NEW Scientist which I leave for your reading entitled: “Dr. Diet’s recipe for Health.” Dr. Cheyne’s call for chicken and vegetables no hard alcohol except for wine was well ahead of his time. I also checked out the used booksellers to see how Dr. Cheyne’s works were trading… and since I don’t have several thousand dollars to spend…

  Continue reading “Ride Dr. Cheyne’s wild ‘Chamber Horse’! Yeee-hah!”