This book surprised me multiple times for both good and bad reasons. The first thing that surprised me was that it definitely was not what I expected. It was a combination of reference material with self-help sections, plus bad jokes and quotes. I would have taken whatever it was, whether it be a "for fun" book, or simply for reference and information. But it seemed as though the author couldn't decide. I later found out that it was actually a joint authorship by a creative writer and a psychologist, so this makes much more sense. The indecisiveness definitely bothered me after a while, however. I just didn't know what to think. I was being entertained by quotes making fun of a phobia at the same time as the author was trying to comfort someone suffering from that same fear. It just seemed like a bad mix on that front. The actual material that the book contained though, all seemed very legitimate and was laid out in a very easy to read format. I enjoyed the easy, quick read and the common sense way the author wrote her book. The section "Scared Stiff" contained many movie references and funny quotes which I thoroughly enjoyed and inspired me to go watch some scary movies and read some books that were rumored to be inspired by certain phobias. In the end I feel like I learned a lot and had a lot of fun with this book. Though, I would not count on this book curing your fears, it is worth the time to read. I would suggest that you read this book as some light weekend entertainment if you're at all curious about phobias. Most of the advice (for overcoming your fears) was repeated word for word, chapter by chapter so I would skim over that after a while and just enjoy the author's sense of humor and vast knowledge of the beginnings of some of our deepest fears.
