Why am I passionate about this?

I saw my first Godzilla movie when I was seven years old, and I immediately fell in love: what kid doesn’t want to be a giant radioactive monster with attitude? But unlike baseball cards, I never outgrew Godzilla and, over the decades, came to appreciate the cultural significance of one of the world’s most enduring film icons. In my writing on Godzilla, I explore my own fascination with monsters and contemplate why all societies, from the dawn of time to today, have compulsively created imaginary creatures that terrify them. The books on this list have helped me understand the human obsession with monsters, and I hope you will find them equally enlightening and enjoyable.


I wrote

Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters

By William M. Tsutsui,

Book cover of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters

What is my book about?

As a reviewer once described it, my book is my personal love letter to Godzilla. It is both an autobiographical


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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Monster Theory: Reading Culture

William M. Tsutsui Why did I love this book?

I am generally not a big fan of hardcore academic theory, but this collection of essays edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen gave me a steady stream of "aha!" moments when I first read it about twenty years ago.

I struggled a bit with some of the jargon here, not to mention the fact that it only deals with monsters in the Western tradition, but I know of no better book for helping readers understand why humans create (and need) monsters, what roles monsters play in affirming (and undermining) social norms, and what the study of monsters can reveal about the anxieties and fault-lines in the cultures that spawn them. “Monsters are our children,” Cohen writes at one point: that still blows my mind after two decades of chewing on it.

By Jeffrey Jerome Cohen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Monster Theory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Monsters provide a key to understanding the culture that spawned them. So argues the essays in this wide-ranging collection that asks the question, what happens when critical theorists take the study of monsters seriously as a means of examining our culture? In viewing the monstrous body as metaphor for the cultural body, the contributors consider beasts, demons, freaks, and fiends as symbolic expressions of very real fears and desires, signs of cultural unease that pervade society and shape its collective behaviour. Through a sampling of monsters as a conceptual category, these essays argue that our fascination for the monstrous testifies



Book cover of The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

William M. Tsutsui Why did I love this book?

I was fascinated by yokai, the weird and wonderful creatures of Japanese folklore, well before they became a thing on social media and in global pop culture. Of all the books designed to introduce yokai to Western audiences, Michael Dylan Foster's is by far the best at explaining how the Japanese understand these legendary creatures and their roles in Japanese culture throughout history.

His stories of kappa and oni and monstrous umbrellas with arms and legs are hilarious, creepy, unforgettable, instructive, and revealing. If I have one gripe about this book, it is that Foster dismisses Godzilla and other kaiju as not being yokai. He’s wrong, but everyone deserves one mistake, especially in an otherwise excellent book.

By Michael Dylan Foster, Shinonome Kijin (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Book of Yokai as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Currently popular in anime, manga, film, and computer games, many yokai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. Drawing on years of research in Japan, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of yokai, tracing their roots, interpreting their meanings, and introducing people who have hunted them through the ages. In this delightful



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Book cover of The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

The Lion and the Fox by Alexander Rose,

From the author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents — one Confederate, the other Union — sent to Britain during the Civil War.

The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincoln’s blockade, sink Northern


Book cover of Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination

William M. Tsutsui Why did I love this book?

Who cannot love a serious but accessible book that obsesses about things like PokĂ©mon, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Tamagotchi (those annoying and addictive “digital pets” that were a millennial fad)?

Anne Allison’s volume was a real eye-opener for me on the place of monsters in youth culture, as a form of play, and how monsters have been commercialized and globalized over the past half century. It is incredible that, in the early twenty-first century, American kids were more likely to embrace Pikachu and Godzilla than the archetypal monsters of Western culture like Dracula and Frankenstein. Allison helped me understand why Japanese monsters are now conquering the globe.

By Anne Allison,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Millennial Monsters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From sushi and karaoke to martial arts and technoware, the currency of made-in-Japan cultural goods has skyrocketed in the global marketplace during the past decade. The globalization of Japanese "cool" is led by youth products: video games, manga (comic books), anime (animation), and cute characters that have fostered kid crazes from Hong Kong to Canada. Examining the crossover traffic between Japan and the United States, Millennial Monsters explores the global popularity of Japanese youth goods today while it questions the make-up of the fantasies and the capitalistic conditions of the play involved. Arguing that part of the appeal of such



Book cover of The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon

William M. Tsutsui Why did I love this book?

Dinosaurs are the gateway drug to kaiju: most Godzilla fans began as kids fascinated by T-rexes and brontosauruses. I was blown away when I discovered W.J.T. Mitchell’s wonky, geeky, and wonderfully eccentric exploration of why we love dinosaurs, actual monsters (albeit prehistoric ones we can only experience today as skeletons in museums) rather than monsters conjured from our darkest imaginations.

Mitchell’s book is lots of fun to dip into, like a jarful of monstrous candy, but reveals in wonderful detail how dinosaurs (just like the creatures of folklore or fiction) are blank slates onto which a culture’s anxieties and aspirations can be inscribed.

By W. J. T. Mitchell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Last Dinosaur Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This text addresses the question of how dinosaurs moved from natural extinction to pop culture resurrection, exploring the animal's place in our lives and the source of its popular appeal. In tracing the cultural family tree of the dinosaur there is discovered a creature of striking flexibility, linked to dragons and mammoths, skyscrapers and steam engines, cowboys and Indians. Here the dinosaur becomes a cultural symbol whose plurality of meaning and often contradictory nature is emblematic of modern society itself. As a scientific entity, the dinosaur endured a near-eclipse for over a century, but as an image it is enjoying



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Book cover of Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders

Traumatization and Its Aftermath by Antonieta Contreras,

A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.

The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster


Book cover of Chessie: A Cultural History of the Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster

William M. Tsutsui Why did I love this book?

I have never been that interested in cryptids, although few words bring a smile to my face as quickly as “Bigfoot” or “Yeti.”  I found Eric Cheezum’s Chessie a great read because it takes cryptids seriously, not (of course) as actual, yet-to-be-documented creatures, but as media manifestations of more profound cultural and social transformations, ruptures and yearnings.

Cheezum’s insight into cryptids impressed upon me that the folkloric creation of monsters occurred not just in some distant European past but even in Virginia retirement homes in the 1970s. The book also reminded me that monsters can be as “real” as one imagines. The next time I drive by the Chesapeake Bay, I’ll be looking for Chessie!

By Eric A. Cheezum,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Chessie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The incredible true story of the mysterious sea creature who captured hearts and imaginations during the turbulent 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

In the summer of 1978, residents along the Virginia side of the Potomac River were startled by sightings of a strange creature lurking in the water. Eventually dubbed Chessie, this elusive sea serpent tantalized reporters and the public alike, always slipping away just out of reach. In this, the first comprehensive history of the Chessie phenomenon, Eric A. Cheezum takes us on a thrilling journey through the life and times of the famous monster, diving beneath the surface to



Explore my book 😀

Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters

By William M. Tsutsui,

Book cover of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters

What is my book about?

As a reviewer once described it, my book is my personal love letter to Godzilla. It is both an autobiographical musing on my lifelong relationship with a Japanese movie monster and a lighthearted but substantive analysis of the franchise's history, global impact, and cultural significance. The book explores how the King of the Monsters became an international pop icon and why a giant radioactive lizard has enjoyed such lasting appeal.  

Delving into the movies’ sometimes somber political messages, famously bad dubbing, cheesy special effects, and impact on world cinema (from Hollywood to North Korea), this is my attempt to explain (both to diehard fans and people who have never seen a creature feature) why an actor in a rubber suit destroying tiny models of Tokyo has resonated so powerfully with audiences for more than fifty years.

Book cover of Monster Theory: Reading Culture
Book cover of The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
Book cover of Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination

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