![]() The reader who thinks she will be wise to avoid argument and trouble by eloping turns to paragraphs H-3. The 1930 novel Consider the Consequences! by Doris Webster and Mary Alden promised “a brand new idea in fiction-a story which ends in any one of a dozen or more different ways, depending entirely on the taste of the individual reader,” and included choice points like this one: Biblionauts of various eras had toyed with the notion of a book that contained its own strange rules for navigation. Packard hadn’t been the first to imagine such a book, or even to write one. If you decide to climb the rocky hill, turn to page 6. If you decide to walk along the beach, turn to page 5. Except for a few sea gulls hovering over the waves, you are all alone. You look out at the ocean and see nothing but endless blue water. Ahead of you is a meadow of tall reeds bounded by high rocky hills. You watch the foaming waves thrashing upon it. In the book, a rogue wave sweeps “you” off a ship, to wake up later on a deserted island. Eventually he had an outline for a book he called The Adventures of You on Sugarcane Island. He started sketching out flowcharts on the train to and from the office, working out from first principles the structural and organizational problems with branching narratives and limited page counts. But now the idea of a book for kids that gave them multiple pathways through a story wouldn’t leave his head. Practicing law had seemed a steadier way to support a family. Packard had always wanted to be a writer, and had tried his hand at a couple of children’s books he’d never managed to sell. “And I thought: ‘Could I write this down?’” “What really struck me was the natural enthusiasm they had for the idea,” he later recalled. His daughters each gave a different answer, so Packard obligingly gave each of them their own ending. But that night I was running out of things for Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do. I had a character named Pete and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on an isolated island. With three hours of daily commuting, about the only chance he had to see the girls during the week was those bedtime stories, and rather than reading them out of a book, he liked to make up his own : He’s designing a book you can play like a game.Ī few nights earlier, Edward Packard had been spinning a bedtime story for his two daughters. The diagram looks “like a tree lying on its side with many branches and limbs.” He ignores the view out the window and his fellow passengers on the train, other men in business suits like him, on their way to work. In the early hours of a morning in 1969, in the middle of a long commuter rail trip from Connecticut to Manhattan, a lawyer edging up on 40 is scribbling a complex diagram in a worn spiral notebook. Remember-you cannot go back! Think carefully before you make a move! One mistake can be your last. You are responsible because you choose! After you make your choice, follow the instructions to see what happens to you next. Your choice may lead to success or disaster! The adventures you take are a result of your choice. From time to time as you read along, you will be asked to make a choice. ![]() Opening Text: WARNING!!!! Do not read this book straight through from beginning to end! These pages contain many different adventures you can go on in the Cave of Time.
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