Books to Help You Confront Your Fears and Phobias

H.P. Lovecraft knew that his readers’ imaginations were so much more vivid than any concrete description he could provide of the horrifying monsters in the Cthulhu Mythos. But that means that you must actively engage with his tales of unspeakable dread, cosmic horror, and monsters who would drive you mad with just one look. So, what are you waiting for?

Claustrophobic? Frightened of the dark? Feel even the slightest shiver when you pass a dilapidated old house? Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? If you didn’t already experience any or all of these phobias before reading Mark Z. Danielewski’s postmodern book about a living house and its efforts to oust its inhabitants…you’ll have to face these fears anyway.

Jaimal Yogis didn’t set out to write a book about fear; first, he penned Saltwater Buddha, a memoir about running away from home and picking up surfing and Buddhism. But on his book tour, he was wracked with anxiety, frozen with fear. The Fear Project came out of his journey to eliminate those fears, through interviews with experts and exposure therapy.

If what you fear is fear itself, then why not face it head-on? For the book equivalent of sitting through a horror movie, pick up anything by Shirley Jackson—in fact, The Haunting of Hill House has been adapted to film multiple times. What makes Jackson a master of the genre is that she uses terror rather than horror to elicit responses.

Many fears boil down to being alone—so why don’t you dive into the memoir of a man who chose to live in isolation? Part social experiment, part satire, Walden is overwhelmingly a tale of self-discovery and spiritual reliance. While you don’t have to follow Thoreau’s example and relocate to a remote cabin, Walden makes a keen manual for life.