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My web page has generated an awful lot of e-mail over the years, so I figured it was about time that I post a frequently-asked questions list so that some of the most common questions can be answered without people having to wait for me to find time to write them back (I can be slow sometimes). Of course, I'm not trying to discourage e-mails, because I love getting them. If your question isn't answered here or if you just want to talk to me about gamebooks, you are always welcome to write me at demiankatz@gmail.com.
What is a gamebook?
As with many things, there is some debate over what the word
"gamebook" should refer to. For the purposes of this site, I
define "gamebook" as any book in which the reader participates in
the story by making choices which affect the course of the narrative. In
the interest of broadness, I also include multi-player combat book games
such as Lost Worlds and other hybrids that use the
basic interactive book format to provide entertainment for multiple players.
Not counting the combat book games, there are really three families of
gamebooks. The oldest is the branching-plot novel, typified by the
Choose Your Own Adventure series. This type of
book requires the reader to make choices but is otherwise like a regular
novel. The next type to appear is the role-playing game solitaire adventure,
first introduced in Flying Buffalo's Tunnels and Trolls line. These
books combine the branching-plot concept with the rules of a role-playing
game, allowing a role-player to advance his or her character without the help
of a game master. The final type, which many people consider to be the only
sort of book worthy of the title "gamebook," is similar to the RPG
solitaire adventure except that it has complete rules included with the book
so that no separate manuals need to be purchased. This concept was
introduced in Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's popular Fighting Fantasy series.
Some people also like to include "solve-it-yourself" mysteries
in their definitions of "gamebook." I exclude them, however,
because although it is sort of game-like to read a mystery and then try to
guess the solution before revealing it, it isn't very interactive. Trying to
guess the outcome is part of reading any mystery, and making this aspect of
the experience more explicit doesn't really change anything. Besides, if I
counted these things as gamebooks, my checklist
would be twice as long!
Where can I get gamebooks?
Unfortunately, gamebooks were mainly popular during the eighties, and they
are now comparatively rare. However, there are still ways to find them.
For used copies, I recommend lairs.com, eBay, half.com, amazon.com or bookfinder.com. I've also heard that
gamebooks are sometimes traded at swapbooks.com. I also sell and trade
books from time to time, and my list of extras is available here. You can also get brand new copies of the
relatively recent Fighting Fantasy reprints from amazon.co.uk. Also be sure to check out
Project Aon, the online home of the
Lone Wolf series. A few more sources for
gamebooks can be found on my links page.
How is the site organized?
To make the most of this site, it's best to understand its two main sections.
The core of the site are my English and International gamebook checklists. These contain
information on every gamebook that I know of in the world, and they grow as
I learn more. A secondary part of the site is my database of reviews, cover scans and other detailed
gamebook information. Unlike my checklists, this section isn't
comprehensive; it only covers the books that I've found time to read, but its
coverage of each book is in much greater depth than what you'll find on the
checklists. I hope that someday my database will cover everything on my
checklists, but I realize that this is impossible -- there are more books out
there than any one person can hope to read. I do my best, though!
Of course, there's more to my site than just the checklists and the database;
explore the main page a little to see what else I have
to offer!
Why haven't you reviewed my favorite books yet?
When I pick books to review, there are several things I consider. First of
all, I prefer to review books from series that I own complete sets of, since
I like to analyze the whole series in the order that it was written. Another
consideration is whether or not anyone else has ever written about the books.
I like to provide coverage of really obscure things like Meet Me at the Fair simply because if I don't do it,
no one will. Finally, there's my mood; sometimes I just feel like a
particular kind of thing. I do listen to reader requests, though, so if
there's something you'd really like to see a page on, feel free to ask. I
make no guarantees, but I'm open-minded!
Why isn't this title on your checklist?
If you have a gamebook that isn't on one of my checklists, then you've got
something very rare indeed, and I'd love to hear about it! E-mail details to
demiankatz@gmail.com. Be warned, though,
that I have more than a year's worth of e-mail that needs to be added to my
checklists, so it may be quite a wait for your information and
acknowledgement to appear on the list. Time is scarce these days!
Who are you, anyway?
My name's Demian Katz, and I'm presently a library student with a computer
science background living in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Also, as you may
have guessed, I like gamebooks.
How'd you get interested in gamebooks?
I discovered Choose Your Own Adventure books through
a librarian friend of my mother's when I was about seven, and just two years
later, I found my first "real" gamebook, The Mines of Moria
from the Middle-earth Quest series, at a shady farmers' market stand
selling coverless paperbacks. World of Lone Wolf
soon followed, and from that point on, I always displayed a certain
preference for interactive reading.
Why do you maintain this website?
In the late nineties, I had sort of forgotten about gamebooks, but then at a
remaindered-books clearance sale, I came across a copy of Spectral
Stalkers from the Fighting Fantasy series. I
was shocked to see that more than the twenty-one books published in the
United States had actually been written, and this inspired me to take
inventory of my collection. Once I got Internet access, I decided it would
be fun to share this inventory with the world, and thanks to the help of
dozens of interested readers, it has grown into something far bigger than
anything I could have created on my own. I don't have as much time for it as
I used to, but it's a truly rewarding hobby.
What's your favorite gamebook?
Well, the truth of the matter is that I don't think many gamebooks are all
that good. I love the potential of the format, but I think most of what's
been done with it is pretty disappointing. The one book that really stands
out from the crowd, though, is Kim Newman's Life's
Lottery, which I think everyone should take the time to read. Beyond
that, my preferences tend to lean more towards personal nostalgia than
literary quality, and they're not really worth sharing.