The first CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOKS, including The Mystery Of Chimney Rock

Join me as I celebrate and revisit some of the first Choose Your Own Adventure Books including The Mystery Of Chimney Rock by Edward Packard.

These US treasures were among the very first gamebooks, which cast the reader as the hero and presented them with branching narratives. So let's take a look through a selection from the first 20 CYOA books and see how they stand up against our memories of them, eh? This might be the first gamebook review on this channel, but it won't be the last, either. I've started a brand new playlist for future gamebook videos, oh yes...

📚 Choose Your Own Adventure books are still very much an ongoing concern! Take a look:

In the video, I mention House Of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski, which is one of my very favourite horror novels. Find it here:

CREDITS

***

FULL DISCLOSURE

Some of the above links (Amazon, eBay, Tube Buddy) are affiliate links that will earn me a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. A great way to support the channel for free, I’m saying. Also: I will never, ever recommend anything I don't personally like.

***

DON’T FORGET TO:

1) Like, subscribe and/or share this video if you had fun.
2) Embrace your obsessions!

#ChooseYourOwnAdventure #CYOA #Gamebooks #ChooseYourOwnAdventureBooks

[jarnopp]

How did you feel about Choose Your Own Adventure books, if you encountered them back in the day? How do you feel about them now? And/or what's your all-time favourite CYOA book? Tell me right here in comments. Satan demands it!

[vincentcastor]

As a child in the 80's I would read these books by candlelight during a thunder storm and enter in some crazy adventures right in my bedroom. True escapism for me at that time. How I love these books. You have a great collection.

[ShadesGameSource]

The Mystery of Chimney Rock, The Mystery of Echo Lodge, and The Horror of High Ridge were my favorites when I was a kid.
I used to stay up late reading Chimney Rock alone in my bed... That book was seriously TERRIFYING and I LOVED it!!

[medicgator]

I remember spending hours reading these. I grew up in a rual are here in America. We had 3 channels on an old black and tv. So it was watch day time soaps phil Donahue go out and play or read. Im not say time was better or anything just i read alot. But my favorite book was and still is i guess was "horrors of high ridge."

[BreakawayBites]

Thanks for showing this. This is one of the reasons, growing up as a kid in the 80s was awesome.... Retro music, cool games, unbelievable sitcoms and list goes on....

[DejanOfRadic]

Man oh man, but I'm right back to my school library 1980.

[djrmarketing]

LOL I remember holding the choice page with my finger as a kid of the 80's... I think I read every single book in the series plus OTHER series books. I love that and Interactive Fiction (Text Adventures) on the computer as well.

[feji]

Till this day CYOA's Hyperspace is perhaps the most mind-bogglingly unique and atmospheric piece of sci-fi I've every read or watched (and I've read Philip K Dick's sci fi too) .. it left such a deep impression in me that even after decades of first reading (and re-reading) it as a child, I can now still recall that it is issue no. 21 of the CYOA series !

Things like walking into an uncanny valley parallel universe where everything seems like home but surreally different in kooky ways .. meeting yourself from another time, etc ... its so bizarrely good that all the subsequent CYOA books I read later felt underwhelming .. its that great ..

[dankoftinoff]

One of the biggest reasons I got into reading as a youth. These really made you feel part of the story, it made reading feel like a game.

[barrypook]

Just when I thought I couldn't be astonished and surprised with another piece of retro gold; I then spot a video about choose your own adventure!!! Glorious! Many thanks 😊

[floyddylan]

I had a book which was from the same people who did the choose your own adventure series, called Time Machine, & it had a wooly mammoth on the front.

Fighting Fantasy was all the rage back in the 80s, & I had quite a lot of books from that series, as well as a big book called Titan from the same authors.

I also loved the Way of the Tiger series which spanned across I think 7 novels & you played a ninja.

[johnnyyeshno]

Oh the 1st book in your left hand at the intro was my jam! Space Patrol has the funky 80s Sci Fi illustrations that burned in my brain. Definitely a great way to get a kid like me to read in the 1980s. Great video homage!

[Oringmonkey]

I absolutely LOVED these books back in the early 80's. My friend and I would devour them in elementary school during reading time. He had the entire collection. Last year, while watching "Knives Out" I had a flashback about these Choose Your Own Adventure Books because I felt like the storyline was almost like "Who Killed Harlowe
Thrombey"...

[AFANartist]

"The horror of High Ridge" was one of the most memorable reading of my childhood. Its uneasy and ominous mood (highlighted by the gory endings) was unmatched even by the adult horror and gothic novels I've read later. Plus the old series was graced by iconic handmade cover art and sometime by evocative illustrations such as those of Ralph Reese and Frank Bolle.

[firepixie]

Thank you so much for the walk down memory lane !! it's been so long since I thought of those books, I used to reread them till they were just warned to pieces, thank you again! 💕

[davidbull]

These were big at my school back in the 80s. Some of those covers have come right back to me. I was sort of into them for a while I think but then Fighting Fantasy took over my life. Looking forward to a video on those!

[cyberpimp]

Can anyone remember the name of the Endless Quest type books that were two player. One player would read their book playing as say "the wizard" and the second player would read their book. Each had henchmen and all had character sheets, hit points and a battlechart. Its driving me crazy!

[OldManDoom]

I always preferred RA Montgonery’s books. They were a little more action packed, and a little easier to digest, especially as a kid. Packard was more dry but also a bit darker with some gruesome endings. But those original CYOA books were my absolute favorites as a grade schooler

[LukeE]

I just discovered game books a few hours ago, and I’ve just noticed that both CYOA and FF series’ 50th entry are a “return to (earlier instalment)” issue. :)

[MikeDancy]

Im currently about to put some on ebay. I also have The Mystery of Chimney Rock as well as a few others. Maybe I'll make a video about it