I don't know about any books where the protagonist starts off as disabled, but in the book "Misery" by Stephen King, the main character loses a foot. I won't spoil anything for those who have not yet read this horror classic, but it is pretty harrowing stuff to say the least.

I will start off by saying that I'm relatively new to binge reading books as I used to prefer watching television or playing games instead. This all changed a few months ago when some circumstances that involves moving and renovating a place resulted in me being without any form of electronic entertainment for a while. To pass time I started reading and I quickly fell in love with books all over again. I used to read a ton of books in school, but as soon as "real-life" began I just kind of pushed them off to the side and then never returned. The book that I ended up reading out of boredom was a dusty copy of Emma by Jane Austen and I ended up finishing it in two evenings. Since then I have gone through almost an entire box of books and even compiled a list of ones that I want to read. Your question is about books that are a little intimidating, so here goes:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - This one is on my list, but there are a lot of other books that I would want to read first before I get to this tale of a delusional knight and his long-suffering servant. I have heard a lot of good things about this book, but I remember that I started to read it while I was still in school and my interest just kind of drifted after a few chapters, so I should really go back and finish it.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - It's not just the sheer size of this classic that is a bit intimidating, but also the subject matter. I have to confess that I haven't read any books by Tolstoy yet, but I do know that he was a master of his craft and a lot of people swear by this epic novel. I will probably read this on my kindle eventually so that I don't slip a disc in my back trying to carry the book around.

The Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien - OK, this one is going to earn me a lot of scorn, but I have never read any of the books in the Lord of The Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. In this case I guess it's not so much the fact that their size intimidates me, but more that I have already watched the movies and feel like I know everything that is going to happen. I know for a fact that the movies could not have covered everything in the books, so I will still discover plenty of new things, but reading three large books when there are still so many other good ones left to read that are shorter feels somewhat wrong.

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce - I can't lie, out of all the books I've mentioned, this is the one that I'm really putting off because it intimidates me. I have researched the book, know that it is considered a classic, culturally significant and very popular, but I have also read a lot of comments by people who just couldn't finish it. My biggest fear with this book is that I struggle so much with it that I end up abandoning it and getting soured on reading again, which is why it is way down on my to-read list at the moment.

-Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman: These books are all kinds of messed up. Picture a world where teens get their body parts harvested if they are unwanted. This is the fate that awaits three teens who get together and try and survive in this crazy world.

-Meat by Joseph D'Lacey: This one is even worse than Unwind and you can already infer from the title alone that it is going to be gruesome. I wasn't quite prepared for how gruesome it would actually be and I could hardly believe that it was the debut novel of the author. The long and short of it is that in the world of Meat being a vegetarian is punishable by a horrible death. That's just the beginning of people's problems.

-Gerald's Game by Stephen King: Stephen King is the master of disturbing stories, but for some reason this one unsettled me the most. I haven't watched the latest movie adaptation yet as not all his books translate well to films and I would like to preserve the memory of this one.

-Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: The first and last "western" that I have ever read.

-Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye: Take Children of The Corn and make it a thousand times more unsettling and you might have a clue what to expect from this book. I've seen some creepy small towns in my time, but Hemmersmoor is a place I wouldn't want to visit in my worst nightmares.

As far as I can see spiders only tend to feature prominently in either horror books or children's books. Since there is already an abundance of horror recommendations, I'm going to recommend a couple of very nice children's books.

1. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Charlotte is a friendly barn spider who lives on a farm. She befriends one of the protagonists of the story, a pig named Wilbur, and comes up with an ingenious plan to save him when he is marked for slaughter. *Spoiler alert* she manages to save Wilbur, but doesn't live much longer herself, so it is a bit of a sad tale. It does have a happy ending as her children take up residence in her old home and become friends with Wilbur too.

2. Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk

This rhyming story with its colorful illustrations is great for the young ones. The star of the story is Miss Spider, who can't understand why people don't want to accept her invitation for tea. She is determined to host a tea party, though, and in the end her efforts pay off.

3. Walter's Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood

If you want to introduce your kids to shapes in an engaging manner, then show them Walter's Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood. It's the story of a spider that wants to build the perfect web and tries out all kinds of different shapes. The art for this book is really charming and the story is educational, but still fun.

4. Be Nice to Spiders by Margaret Bloy Graham

This is a cute book about a spider who ends up living at the zoo and improving the lives of all the animals there by spinning webs to catch the flies that are buzzing around. Things almost go badly wrong when the zoo has a large scale clean-up operation, but in the end everyone recognizes the valuable contributions from the spider.

5. Frank the Seven-Legged Spider by Michaele Razi

Frank the Seven-Legged Spider is all about a spider named Frank who wakes up one day missing a leg. Frank is obviously very upset about this turn of events, but soon learns that even with seven legs, he is still a spider and can live his life to the fullest. If you want to teach your child about coping with a disability, then you should enlist the aid of Frank.

6. The Hugely-Wugely Spider by Ethan T. Berlin

Everyone knows Itsy-Bitsy spider, but it’s about time the world learns about the slightly larger, Hugely-Wugely spider. Hugely is a little large for downspouts, but his size still ends up saving the day and making him a hero.

7. I'm Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton

This one is for very, very young readers as it is mostly pictures and not words, but it still tells an enjoyable story that the young ones who hate spiders can really relate to.

All of these have been deemed as certified "awesome" by my kids, so if you have young kids who have a fascination with spiders, then any of these books should delight them.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Forest Gump by Winston Groom yet. I'm not sure if his low intelligence counts as a disability, but he never let it get in the way of his life. Lieutenant Dan, another character in the book, is definitely disabled after the Vietnam War, but his life changes thanks to Forest. In any case, I mostly read young adult books, so my recommendations would be Five Flavors of Dumb by Anthony John, Loving April by Melvin Burgess and Read My Lips by Teri Brown. These books all feature protagonists who all have some type of hearing disability.