Choose Your Own Adventure Books

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There was a whole genre of Choose Your Own Adventure Books in the 1970's to 1990's period and some are still written today. I never liked them. The idea is simple enough, and most of the books have a fantasy quest theme. You are the hero in the book and you reach a page or chapter ending that gives you two or more choices. You can pick up a sword (turn to page 27) or a shield, (turn to page 30) but not both. You can go South through the forbidden mountains, (turn to page 56) or West through the swamp (turn to page 91) etc. You don't actually create your adventure, but choose a path that leads to fresh choices, and simply getting yourself killed off is rare. My problem was that in a 300 page book, the reader only uses about 80-90 pages, though of course you can go back later and make different choices, but most are just different routes to the same goal. Many computer games use the same principle, with the moves you make opening different sub-menus. Sadly, life only gives us one choice as we can't go back and change course. I also disliked how the books broke the narrative to explain to me what my choices were. I might think of option C, run away from the dragon, but no, I have to use sword or shield. I'd sooner stick to books where the writer does the work for me. Arthur Chappell