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We're all pilgrims on the same journey – but some pilgrims have better road maps – Nelson DeMille

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Non-fiction books for sale

Feb 1

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Updated September 18th, 2020　　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

Communication as Culture, Revised Edition　を ￥4,061 で@amazonから出品しました　 Ships from Japan. Good condition. No markings, torn or missing pages. Slight scuffing on edges of covers. Some discoloration on corners of text block. Black ink mark on bottom textblock. 日本より発送。商品の劣化や破れ、剥がれ等がある。 書きこみ,切りぬきはありません。地の角に汚れている所がある。使用感があり。下の地に黒マーカ

Do You Have the Guts to be Beautiful?: Simple, Natural Practices for Reversing Wrinkles, Blemishes, Graying and Baldness and Feeling Young Again Paperback – March 1, 2009

学校で教えない大恐慌・ニューディール (Japanese) Tankobon Hardcover – April 28, 2015. A Japanese translation of Austrian economist Robert Murphy’s book “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal”.

Relearning to See: Improve Your Eyesight Naturally! Paperback – Illustrated, January 1, 2000

P.A.C.E: The 12-Minute Fitness Revolution (Exercise Workout Books) Paperback – February 1, 2010

The Tao of Love and Sex: The Ancient Chinese Way to Ecstasy (Compass) Paperback – Illustrated, August 16, 1991

The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet Paperback – January 15, 2009

Antoine De St.Exupery: The Life and Death of the Little Prince Hardcover – September 24, 1993. Famed author of “The Little Prince”, pilot and adventurer De St. Exupery was a lyrical writer and thinker.

Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and, Life by Laura Whitworth, Karen Kimsey-House, Henry Kimsey-House, Phi (2007) Paperback Paperback

How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish Without a Trace Hardcover – September 1, 2010. Full of practical advice, though increasinly difficult to follow in today’s privacy-free world.

Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market Paperback – Illustrated, March 27, 2007

How to Sell Anything to Anybody Paperback – October 31, 1986. Written by a man who put his money where his mouth is… and made a packet.

Critical Path Paperback – Illustrated, February 14, 1978. A hugely influential and memorable book, written in Fuller’s inimitable dense and humorous style.

Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments Paperback – Illustrated, October 1, 2003

Democracy – The God That Failed (Perspectives on Democratic Practice)

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Business management books for sale

Jan 30

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Updated September 18th, 2020 　　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

The Start-Up Entrepreneur: How You Can Succeed in Building Your Own Company into a Major Enterprise Starting from Scratch Paperback – January 1, 1987

Late Night Discussions on the Theory of Constraints Paperback – January 1, 1998. By the originator himself, Eliyahu M. Goldratt.

Isn’t It Obvious? Paperback – November 1, 2009. By Theory of Constraints originator, Eliyahu M. Goldratt.

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got Paperback – October 11, 1997 By the master marketer himself, Jay Abraham.

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For sale – books on writing and teaching (and teaching writing)

Jan 20

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Updated September 18th, 2020　　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

The theme here is writing, teaching and the teaching of writing.

  1. Escalante: The Best Teacher in America (An Owl Book) Paperback – August 1, 1989. The true story of a remarkable math teacher, Bolivian-born Jaime Escalante, and the basis for the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver“.
  2. Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality
  3. Education: Free & Compulsory. By Murray Rothbard. From the Mises website:

    “What is it about today’s school system that so many find unsatisfactory? Why have generations of reformers failed to improve the educational system, and, indeed, caused it to degenerate further and further into an ever declining level of mediocrity? In this radical and scholarly monograph, out of print for two decades and restored according to the author’s original, Murray N. Rothbard identifies the crucial feature of our educational system that dooms it to fail: at every level, from financing to attendance, the system relies on compulsion instead of voluntary consent. Certain consequences follow…”

  4. Write to be Read Student’s Book: Reading, Reflection, and Writing (Cambridge Academic …Smalzer, William R.
  5. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (paperback, 1996) by Neil Postman.
  6. Teacher in America – Jacques Barzun. Paperback – April 1, 1981

Teacher in America – Jacques Barzun. Paperback – April 1, 1981

Jane Austen and Her Art (Oxford Paperbacks) Paperback – December 1, 1963

Ambrose Bierce’s Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic’s Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st Century Readers Hardcover – November 10, 2009

The Culture We Deserve Paperback – May 1, 1989

The Super School of the 21st Century Paperback – December 1, 1996. By James Asher, the originator of the TPR method.

Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education Paperback – February 1, 2008

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don’t Go to School Tell Their Own Stories Paperback – July 31, 2005

Making the Writing And Research Connection With the I-Search Process (How to Do It Manuals for Librarians) Paperback – June 1, 2006

Being a Writer: A Community of Writers Revisited Paperback – August 19, 2002

Fred Jones Tools for Teaching: Discipline-Instruction-Motivation Paperback – January 1, 2007

The Future Of Learning The Michel Thomas Method: Freeing Minds One Person At A Time Paperback – July 4, 2008 . Michel Thomas was the hugely successful inventor of a novel and lucrative method for teaching languages. He had an office in Hollywood and taught many famous movie stars, including Woody Allen and Emma Thompson

Michel Thomas: The Learning Revolution Hardcover – May 30, 2008

  1. File 2016-01-29 18 12 18「The University Outside State Control」 を ￥2,999 で出品しまし。た日本より発送。丁寧に保管されたから、きれいな状態です。書きこみ,切りぬきはありません。使用感があり。この本はアマゾンのカタログに載ってないので、買えい方はコメントを残してください。A rare book by a British academic: it questions the relationship between university and state and suggests universities would serve their public better if they were not subject to so much interference by government. This privately published book is not catalogued on Amazon.

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CS Lewis collection going for a song

Jan 20

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Updated September 18th, 2020 　　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

The first 7 books here are by or about C.S. Lewis and/or his writings. The others are the remarkable, beautiful and unforgettable stories by the man C.S. Lewis credited with inspiring him to write fairy stories – George MacDonald.

Further Up And Further in: Understanding C. S. Lewis’s the Lion, the Witch, And the Wardrobe Hardcover – October 1, 2005

C.S. Lewis in Context – Hardcover 1994

The Allegory of Love: A Study In Medieval Tradition (Canto Classics) Paperback – November 7, 2013

A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis Paperback – March 31, 2003

Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy vol 1 (Paperback)) Paperback – March 11, 2003

That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy (Paperback)) Paperback – May 13, 2003

  1. George MacDonald (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis). This collection is edited by CS Lewis who also wrote a foreword. Lewis wrote that MacDonald was his mentor, although they never met in life, as MacDonald died when Lewis was 12.
  2. The Pilgrim’s Regress, Wade Annotated Edition Paperback – July 28, 2020
  3. The Princess and Curdie By the man who inspired C.S. Lewis.
  4. The Complete Fairy Tales By George McDonald, the man who inspired C.S. Lewis. These tales are haunting and unforgettable, as well as deeply moral. Not always easy to read. Though written in Victorian times, they are by no means as maudlin or sentimental as “The Water Babies”, for instance.
  5. The Princess and the Goblin By George McDonald, the man who inspired C.S. Lewis.
  6. Oresteia “the Oresteia of Aeschylus, consisting of Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides. These three plays recount the murder of Agamemnon by his queen Clytemnestra on his return from Troy with the captive Trojan princess Cassandra; the murder in turn of Clytemnestra by their son Orest.”

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New Year’s welcome 明けましておめでとうございます

Jan 1

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What do you see in this photo? What do you feel when you see it? What do you imagine when you see it?

fuji_sunrise

photo credit: toru.photo.box

The Japanese for “Happy New Year” is a phrase that means congratulations on the rebirthing of the year. The year was thought to have died on Dec. 31st, and then be reborn the next day. A fortunate event, indeed, worthy of celebration, and of congratulating one’s fellow beings, those who are still around to witness it.

What does January 1st mean for you?

Science fiction, fairy tales, poetry

Nov 5

Posted by sheffner in 2nd hand books, announcement | Comments off

Updated September 18th 2020　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

Click here to see all my 2nd-hand book-sale posts.  And click here to see my collection of CS Lewis books: https://wp.me/pmZvp-1Sh

  1. Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit
  2. 勇者の剣 (レッドウォール伝説)
  3. Four Tales of the Northlands: AND Nogmania (The Sagas of Noggin the Nog)
  4. Shiloh Trilogy: Shiloh, Shiloh Season, Saving Shiloh, 3-volume boxed set
  5. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (a Young Adult story)
  6. Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit
  7. Turtle Island by Gary Snynder
  8. Chieko’s Sky – poems for a deceased wife
  9. The Mabinogion – classic tales of Welsh mythology
  10. Green Eggs and Ham – the Dr. Seuss classic

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2nd-hand books on language, linguistics and EFL

Nov 5

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Updated  September 18th, 2020 　　　２０２０年９月１８日更新

  • Click here to see all my book-sale posts, or copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://bit.ly/sheffners2ndhandbooks
  • Many thanks to those of you who purchased some of these books. And here are some more!
  • 売っている本（英語も日本語も）の全てはこちら　http://bit.ly/sheffners2ndhandbooks

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language – Steven Pinker

Gimson’s Pronunciation of English – Alan Cruttenden(2014-04-11)

Language as Discourse (Applied Linguistics and Language Study) Paperback – November 29, 1993 – Mike McCarthy & Ronald Carter.

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for students and researchers. Hardcover April 15, 2007

Write to be Read Student’s Book: Reading Reflection and Writing (2nd Edition) (1.8.2005) Paperback – January 1, 2005. By William R. Smalzer

Write to be Read: Reading, Reflection, and Writing – Teachers Manual, 2 Ed. [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2013] SMALZER Paperback – January 1, 2017

Through the Communication Barrier: On Speaking, Listening, and Understanding. By Samuel I. Hayakawa.

Click here to see all my 2nd-hand book-sale posts.

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The pot with the hole 穴のあいた桶

Oct 10

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Venetia Stanley-Smith has become quite well known in Japan, thanks to numerous NHK programs about her and her house and herb-garden in Ohara, Kyoto. She has lived in Japan since 1975, a lot longer than I have.

I first met Venetia Stanley-Smith in the countryside in Kyoto in 1982. We have remained in touch on and off ever since, and have visited her in her Ohara home.

On her way to Japan from Europe, she met a remarkable boy named Prem Rawat in India. When she settled in Japan, she invited Prem to Japan to give talks. Prem Rawat has visited Japan regularly since that time, and is in Japan again now, this time to promote his book, ” Pot with the Hole 穴のあいた桶” which was published in Japan in September, and has already sold more than 10,000 copies.

Prem Rawat will be in Kyoto on October 11th at the Kokusai Kaikan to give a public talk (14:30-16:00). Tickets are available at the door. Please visit the website for details (the website is only in Japanese, unfortunately): http://www.premrawat-japan.com/

The price for students is just 1,000 yen, but there are some free tickets. I have some and I will be at the event. If you would like a free ticket, please contact me.

Choice – your secret weapon

Sep 23

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Much is written and said about how to improve yourself and change the world. But here is a short, simple yet incredibly challenging message. Simple. Yet challenging. Created by TPRF for Peace Day 2015.

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D-Day +1

Jun 7

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June 6th was the 71st anniversary of D-Day and the Normandy landings of 1944., dubbed the largest amphibian military assault in history. 156,000 troops landed on a 50-mile stretch of the French Normandy coastline on the morning of June 6th.  A large complex deception plan was enacted to deceive the Germans about exactly where and when the invasion would take place. This plan included fake equipment, a phantom army and fake radio transmissions. (Read more here.)

How much do you know about D-Day? Take a quiz here (I got 60%. How about you?)

I  recently read some excellent children’s stories about the European theatre of WWII, but first, here’s a remarkable video of statistics about military and civilian deaths in WWII:

I recommend the following books about WWII:

  • Ian Serrailler’s “The Silver Sword”, a fictional story but based on real accounts, this tells the tale of 4 children from Warsaw, Poland, whose parents are suddenly arrested by the Nazis, leaving the children to fend for themselves. The father is sent to a prison camp in the south of the country, but he escapes and makes his way back to Warsaw where he hears that his wife was packed off to work as a slave in Germany, and his house was blown up by the Nazis. And the children? Nobody knows anything about them, but while visiting the site of his home, the father  finds a small silver sword, a paper knife he’d given to his wife, and then he meets a strange wild boy named Jan who picks his pockets of food and demands the silver sword. On a hunch, the father gives the sword to Jan on condition that if ever Jan meets his children, he will tell them to go to Switzerland where his wife’s parents live, and where they had agreed to meet should the family be separated. Jan later does meet the 3 children and gains their trust by showing them the sword. The four of them decide to go to Switzerland. The rest of the book is about their extraordinary journey. Written for children, it avoids over-graphic descriptions, yet remains grim and realistic and does not sugar-coat anything. As such, it makes a moving and enjoyable read for adults as well. Serrailler was a school teacher, and during the war was a conscientious objector, yet his descriptions of war-torn Poland are remarkably detailed and convincing. I first read this story when I was 11, and never forgot it.
  • Parallel Journeys, by Eleanor Ayer. The personal experience of WWII, told by a German teenager who joined the Hitler Youth then the Luftwaffe, and a German Jew who “escaped” to Holland in 1939. Author Eleanor Ayer ties the two stories together and acts as an editorial voice connecting quotes from the original books by each participant, Alfons Heck and Helen Waterford, in their own words. Each chapter recounts the events in one of the two’s lives. The chapters alternate between the two characters and are in chronological order.Points that struck me: the fatal hesitation on the part of so many Jews even after the writing was on the wall; the shock when Helen realises this talk of “labor camps” must be a lie; the sickening yet totally believable naivety and fanatic enthusiasm for Hitler and his mad plans on the part of teenaged German youths; the angry good-sense from… (read the rest of my review on Amazon Japan).
  • Resistance 1, a graphic novel by Carla Jablonski (story) and Leland Purvis (illustrations), about some children living in “Free” France who hide a neighbouring Jewish boy when his parents are arrested by the Nazis. Realizing they can’t keep him hidden forever, they decide to contact the Resistance to see if they can help get him to Paris where he learns his parents are in hiding. The book is a light read for adults, but may be a good introduction to this period of French history for younger English readers. There is just one death – a Resistance fighter is killed right in front of the children – but the brooding menace of the times is felt, and the difficulties of getting children to understand the situation.
  • There’s No Escape, by Ian Serrailler. This is more of an adventure story than a war story, and everything is fictional, although the countries’ are obviously similar to European countries in the time of WWII. I inlcude it here because it is a thoroughly enjoyable read and showcases Serrailler’s extraordinary powers as a story-teller. The story is a string of upsets and unexpected twists (more or less believable). A British scientist is persuaded to rescue another scientist from behind enemy lines in Europe. He is trained in parachute-jumping and given false papers and a rendez-vous in 10 days. Everything goes wrong: he lands in a tree and wastes valuable time extricating himself. He buries his parachutist’s clothes, only to discover that he has left his map in them by mistake. He hurries back, but his clothes have disappeared! He is given refuge by a local farmer and tells them of his plans, hoping for their aid, only to fall ill and be laid up in bed for a week! One day, a “doctor” pays a visit; the doctor turns out to be the scientist our hero was supposed to look for! The farmer’s son found him. The rest of the story describes how the two manage to get themselves to the rendez-vous, only to be arrested there and miss the plane that comes to pick them up. There is another way out of the country, but it involves a high mountain pass, and the two must bring along the farmer’s wife and children or leave them to certain death.

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