To eat the omelet, turn to Page 86.

For my inaugural post dedicated to literature, I have decided to delve into a series of books that I hold very dear. The "Choose Your Own Adventure" series was a childhood favorite of mine. For those who may be unaware, this series of books, most popular during the 1990's, placed the reader as the protagonist. The first few pages read like an ordinary novel but would then abruptly stop and give the reader two or more choices. These choices would then lead the reader to another page of the book to continue the story. The choices made would ultimately affect the outcome of the story. Back in the early nineties, this was the closest thing we had to "interactive." That, and Sega Genesis.

I remember many years ago in middle school going down to the library during class each Thursday to return and pick out a new book for the week. Truth be told, I was never much of a reader in my youth. Sure, I read the books in school... for the most part. But my idea of fun on a Saturday seldom involved a good book. I enjoyed very short stories. Books with a lot of pictures were also a plus. Because of this, I would often take out books in the EyeWitness series (A series that I shall talk more about later!).

On with the flashback!!!!

So, there he was. A chubby ten year old boy wandering around a simple looking school library looking for something interesting to read and/or flip through. Suddenly he comes upon a small white book with a funny cover. The book was called, "The Cave of Time." I remember the cover had some kid in a green shirt riding a horse in front of a ghoulishly looking bearded figure.

Just. Awesome.

The Cave of Time was the first in
the Choose Your Own Adventure series

It has been many years since I have read this book so I cannot really remember what it was about. I do, however, know that it involved time travel. Time travel, as we all know, is the coolest thing ever. With forty different endings... it was like reading forty books! It was slightly overwhelming for me at the time to even fathom. While I cannot recall the overall plot of the story, I can certainly remember the story ending in my death several times. These stories were notorious for having dozens of endings that ended in gloom and doom.

Certain death.

Bad endings.

Often times I would sneak a peak at a choice to see if it lead to the good ending or to my certain demise. Today that would be considered cheating by my standards. At the time, however, it was called...

Skill.


Needless to say, I would spent many more library days choosing new books in this series until I had read them all. It certainly piqued my interest in reading in general as well as in science fiction. Soon after this, I moved onto the Norby series by Issac Asimov.


Upon further reflection of this series. I often ponder the twists and turns of my own life. Large or small, every decision has made a profound influence on my life. Less than desirable outcomes have created loose threads on my journey. At times, I wish I could tug on those threads to remove them. I now realize, however, that pulling those threads would unravel the tapestry of my life. And we cannot have that, now can we? It is all apart of the grand adventure!

For those interested, these books can still be found at many bookstores. I recently discovered a lot of these at my local Barnes & Noble. Of course, you can also find them online for pennies on the dollar. Much to my jubilation, I discovered that, a few years ago, another publishing copy bought the rights to this series and started to release new stories. Better still, digital copies of these books are slated to be released for the iPhone and iPad. For those interested in this series, here are a few starting points.

1. The Official Website of Choose Your Own Adventure
2. Choose Your Own Adventure books on your iPad!