Library Stuff

Book Bench – :”A friend gave me Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” at a sleepover for my fourteenth birthday. After the other girls fell asleep, I stayed up and read the entire novel. A likely choice for a moody teen-ager already contemplating the inexorable passing of her youth.

So when I heard that a study published this month had found that reading books improves the moods of adolescents, I became curious. Did the study’s authors take the types of books into consideration?”

NYT: “Albert Ellis, whose streamlined, confrontational approach to psychotherapy made him one of the most influential and provocative figures in modern psychology, died early today at his home in an apartment above the institute he founded Manhattan. He was 93. The cause was kidney and heart failure, said a friend and associate, Gayle Rosellini.”

I studied Ellis’s theories while getting my Masters in Psychology. While a bit brash, I was turned on by his no nonsense approach to therapy. But then, I read Man’s Search for Meaning (MSFM) and was blown away by Frankl. MSFM is my bible and use the techniques everyday when dealing with work or personal issues.

Sad to hear about Ellis passing away.