Facing the Unknown at Your Local Library

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, 

and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

As I write, Halloween is just a few weeks away. It is that time of year when leaves begin to change color and die off, when carved pumpkins stand guard on our neighbors’ front stoops and porches, and when a surprising “boo!” is as acceptable as a “good morning” or “hello.” It is the time of year when we invite ghosts, ghouls, and other things that go bump in the night to parade around our towns like they are welcome or, even worse, celebrated! And why do we do this? Because it is fun to be scared. Right?

Wrong! It is not fun to worry about whether or not your house is haunted or a member of your family possessed! It is not fun to wonder if you may be on the receiving end of a witch’s or warlock’s latest spell. And it is certainly not fun to lose sleep knowing that at any moment you may be abducted by a UFO and will be unable to make it into work tomorrow morning. 

So what can you do? How can you overcome these fears? Where can you go and who can help?

Your local public library, of course. As Sir Francis Bacon once said, “knowledge is power,” and we are here to help you obtain that power! October may be the spookiest time of year. It is a month that brought us masterpieces of the macabre like Night of the Living Dead, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast, and John Carpenter’s Halloween. But it does not mean you have to be afraid. We may have missed National Face Your Fears Day (mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 15, 2019), but that does not mean you cannot start empowering yourself with knowledge today. Whether you are worried about ghostly hauntings, alien abductions, or other creatures that roam the woods at night, we have books for you.

Stop by your local branch and check out some of these spooky, yet educational, books today.

Ghosts and Haunted Houses

Atlas of Cursed Places: A Travel Guide to Dangerous and Frightful Destinations by Olivier Le Carrer

Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World by Jeff Belanger

Haunted Hollywood: Tinseltown Terrors, Filmdom Phantoms, and Movieland Mayhem by Tom Ogden

Where the Ghosts Are: The Ultimate Guide to Haunted Houses by Hans Holzer

Witches, Warlocks, and Everything in Between

The New Encyclopedia of the Occult by John Michael Greer

The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic: An Illustrated History by Christopher Dell

Witches: True Encounters with Wicca, Wizards, Covens, Cults and Magick by Hans Holzer

Wizards and Witches by Brendan Lehane

Aliens and Other Unidentified Flying Objects

New Jersey UFOs by Gerard J. Medvec

The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama by Larry Holcombe

The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America’s UFO Highway by Ben Mezrich

UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says by Donald R. Prothero

A Little Bit of Everything Else

Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids by Daniel Loxton

Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers by Michael Newton

Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human by Boria Sax

The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster by Brian Regal

- Christopher Yaple, Twin Rivers Branch