Choose Your Own Adventure Book Series

Don't you just love a good adventure now and then? Though not everyone wants the same degree of excitement out of life, we all seek a taste of it just the same. On one hand, there are those who crave adventure to the point of distraction, through daredevil hobbies or lifestyles. Most of us, however, choose to fulfill that need in other ways. Some people travel. Many have active and varied social lives. Some of us prefer the adventure found in an exciting movie. Last, but not least, are the people who choose to experience adventure in the third-person . . . through reading.

Yes, many people are content to simply curl up with a good book and let their imaginations run wild. That may sound lame to some, but, believe it or not, reading a good book can be an awesome adventure! When you read, you can be anything, you can do anything; you are bound only by the extent of your imagination. Which is exactly why youngsters of the 80's found the Choose Your Own Adventure books so appealing.

Because you were the one living the adventure.

Well, almost. The stories were written in second-person, so you alone made the decisions for the main character, and, in doing so, determined how the story would unfold. That's about as close as you can get to actually stepping inside the story. Pretty cool, huh? Heck, yeah! Not only were those books cool, but they were fun and interesting and not gender-specific. So, boys and girls alike could pick one up and spend the afternoon getting lost in their favorite adventure. It was that easy. So much so, in fact, that kids who didn't enjoy reading were drawn in by these stories as well and were able to develop a new appreciation for books. With these kinds of accolades, it's no surprise that Choose Your Own Adventure was one of the most popular childrens book series of the time.

The Cave of Time (Choose Your Own Adventure, No 1)

The Choose Your Own Adventure book series consisted of a large selection of children's gamebooks that were very popular during the 1980's and 90's. The very first book, entitled The Cave of Time, was written by Edward Packard and published by Bantam Books in 1979. By the time the last book, Escape from The Haunted Warehouse, was published in 1998, the CYOA series included a total of 185 gamebooks. Though many of the titles were produced by a variety of authors, the majority of the stories were written by R.A. Montgomery and Edward Packard. A complete list of the books included in the original series can be found on Wikipedia by clicking on the above link.

So, how were these stories constructed? Well, basically, each adventure invited the reader to join the story by deciding the path along which the main character would proceed. At various points in each story, choices with corresponding page numbers were given and the reader would then turn to the page of whichever path he or she chose. Sometimes, your choice led to a favorable outcome and, sometimes, not so much. I can't tell you how many times I inadvertently killed off the main character. Oh well. Fortunately, you could always backtrack, choose the other option, and hope for a better result.

Courtesy of Do As I Write.

Although the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books are now out of print, this series of gamebooks for children is currently being republished by Chooseco with brand new covers and some editing of the text. However, if you are a collector of vintage adventure books and are looking for the original publication of this series by Bantam Books, don't despair. On the internet, anything is possible and you may very well find some vintage Choose Your Own Adventure books on Amazon or eBay. Also, don't forget about used bookstores, thrift shops, and yard sales. Those places can be virtual goldmines when looking for rare finds!

Due to the popularity of the original series, several "spin-off" Choose Your Own Adventure series evolved in an effort to appeal to a larger audience. Those included:

Courtesy of Joey deVilla.

• Choose Your Own Adventure for Younger Readers


• Choose Your Own Adventure: Walt Disney Series


• Choose Your Own Super Adventure


• Choose Your Own Adventure: Passport


• Choose Your Own Nightmare


• Choose Your Own Adventure, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles


• Choose Your Own Star Wars Adventure


• Choose Your Own First Adventure


• Choose Your Own Adventure - Space Hawks

Many thanks to Wikipedia for the history lesson on this book series, as well as the "bluebox" tidbits. The image in the introduction is courtesy of 7782 blogspot.