Fear and its many forms
The book is entitled "A Golden Treasury of Natural History". It was written in 1965. Upon opening its thin pages the unmistakable "old book" smell permeates your nose and the inside cover bears the hubristic childhood scrawling of each of my brothers and sisters names as it was passed down from sibling to sibling as each one lost interest and then ultimately came to my attentive hands.
I carefully exacted my signature in cornflower blue crayola when I was about seven.
I know that for many years I looked at that book every day. Any sort of scientific fascination I developed always led to me scouring a particular chapter, Paleontology, Zoology, Geology, Entomology and Oceanography. The deep ocean section lured me in every time. The myriad of freakish lovely creatures that existed happily with never seeing the light of day was enthralling to my grade school imagination. Invariably however, my joy would turn to apprehension as I approached page 103 - Tridac naderosa - The giant clam.
Just the sight of the hulking beast made me edgy, as if it could suddenly leap off the page and consume me before I could squeeze out a pitiful cry for assistance.
I would have dreams of the ghastly mollusk levitating ominously at the end of my parents long long hallway. I would be frozen in fear until it slowly opened its gaping maw and started hurtling through the air towards me, chomping at my tiny heels.
I would scream bloody murder and vainly attempt to escape into back bedrooms that had inevitably been locked from the inside resulting in my horrible bloody demise.
The inside of the huge shell always looked like it might have been sort of velvety, but I knew having spent years at the bottom of the ocean it was freezing cold and slimy with all manner of ocean insects hanging onto its giant lips waiting to make a meal on whatever spilled from the Giant Clam feasting on the bones of small children.

He doesn't really scare me anymore.... not like Mr. Peanut.