I have to say something about the firing this week of Toronto Raptors coach, Dwane Casey. Though named a finalist for 2018 Coach of the Year, after the best-ever season by a Raptors team, and winning the first round in the playoffs before losing to Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Casey was dismissed. Yet … Continue reading Rescuing Loners | The Firing of Dwane Casey
The Lost 11 year-old Loner |Was he really Lost?
Last week I went for a walk below the Scarborough Bluffs, the 12,000 year old cliff along the north shore of Lake Ontario created by a giant glacial river during the last ice age. After a long winter, I walked in the spring sunshine there, and explored the woods that grow in the deep gullies … Continue reading The Lost 11 year-old Loner |Was he really Lost?
Are you an Introvert and an Extrovert?
In my book The Shyness Guide, I've written about C.G. Jung's different conception of 'introvert/extrovert' - different, that is, from the view of most people today. Since it was Jung who coined the terms 'introvert' and 'extrovert', he ought to have a say in how they're used. In his book Psychological Types, he proposed that there are … Continue reading Are you an Introvert and an Extrovert?
The Ugly Duckling and The Birdcatcher
Someone has said The Birdcatcher is just the story of the Ugly Duckling retold. Well, yes, that's what it is. That fairy tale was written especially for shy solitary people. Human 'ugly ducklings' have been told for a long time, maybe thousands of years, that they should stop being different, that they should behave like everyone … Continue reading The Ugly Duckling and The Birdcatcher
Rescuing Shyness |Fate of the 25% Man
Recently I was reading some pages from my journal written in 2009 when I was 59 years old, and I came upon a forgotten thought: Looking back on the previous decades of my life, reflecting on what I had learned and not learned, achieved and not achieved, I said to myself: "You are 25% social, … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness |Fate of the 25% Man
Shrinking Violets – The Secret History of Shyness by Joe Moran
Recently I finished reading Joe Moran's bestselling 2016 book, Shrinking Violets – The Secret Life of Shyness. You might think that I would be jealous of a shyness book that is commercially successful, when my book, The Shyness Guide, being an 'indie' book, is not allowed to compete in that arena. Well, that's not what … Continue reading Shrinking Violets – The Secret History of Shyness by Joe Moran
The 10 Shyest Novels of all time
These are the 10 shyest novels of all time according to me. Since there were over 25,000 novels written in the 19th century alone, and I probably haven't read more than 150 of them, along with maybe 300 from the 20th and 21st centuries, whose novels no one has even tried to count as far … Continue reading The 10 Shyest Novels of all time
A Shy Loner under siege |J. D. Salinger
Like everyone else, when I was young I read J.D. Salinger's famous novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and some of his short stories. I wasn't as impressed as everyone else seemed to be, but I was impressed by Salinger's tight innovative prose, which helped me in my early writing. No, I didn't find Salinger's … Continue reading A Shy Loner under siege |J. D. Salinger
Why I wrote The Shyness Guide
On The Shyness Guide's landing page I've explained my credentials for writing that book. But why did I feel it necessary to write such a book? After all, there are more than 600 books about Shyness (last time I checked). How could there be anything left to say? Well, because shyness is almost never understood … Continue reading Why I wrote The Shyness Guide
