Choose Your Own Adventure Books For Adults

Choose Your Own Adventure Books For Adults

choose your own adventure books for adults

23 Select Your Own Adventure Book for Grown-Ups

Stories of heroism and suspense are waiting for you.

K.W. Colyard

So you’re a kid on your way to visit your uncle, when suddenly you find yourself trapped in a mysterious, time-traveling cave. Or abducted by aliens. Or sent directly to the bottom. One wrong move, and you could be devoured by sharks, trapped forever in the future, or executed for space crime. You may have read these books as a child. Those books were part of many childhood memories.

We could tell you that there are books with a choose-your-own-adventure-style format for adults. You can also reread classic books like Choose Your Own Adventure as an adult. There’s no age limit on being eaten alive by an ant-person. However, there are some game books for older readers or all ages. This book can be used to take on literary adventures like Austen’s Shakespearean adventure, role-play lazy slackers, or guide you through fantasy land. Just get your thumb ready, in case you make the wrong choice and need to backtrack. These are 23 adventure books that you can choose from for adults.

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choose your own adventure books for adults

7 Choose-Your-Own-Escapade Books For Adults

Photo by Jon Tyson, Unsplash. Ask any author to tell you that it’s very difficult to write a book. We’ll be honest with you, so don’t ask. Your classic, run-of-the-mill, hard-to-write book contains exactly one ending. One and a halb if epilogues are added (which I do not). One genre of books, though, isn’t bound by the convention that books must have one-and-a-half endings. A certain book genre believes books should actually have many endings and that readers should be able to control the story at every stage.

These books allow the reader to choose their own route, as in the Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 1980s and 1990s. Each page of these books was formatted in a way that the reader would have a choice. Your choice could lead you to another choice. These endings, in my opinion as a Choose Your Own Adventure reader when I was young, often resulted in my horrible and violent death. This took me away from my innocent nine-year-old self, but it kept me coming back.

Build Your Own Holiday Movie Romance is my first book. This book was inspired by three factors: First, I believe Santa is real, and that Santa walks among us. Second is that condo-owners can descend on small towns, and third is that there’s nothing more enjoyable than the wide variety of plot choices that a book called “choose YOUR own path”.

Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance looks like a Hallmark Christmas movie, but with steroids. Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance, which is a comedy about “made-for TV Christmas movies”, follows Chrissy. A busy businesswoman, Chrissy hates Christmas. When her boyfriend leaves her for business and she is fired from her job, Chrissy has no other choice but to go home to Candy Cane Falls to celebrate Christmas. Chrissy doesn’t have a choice. You, the reader do. To big decisions (should she accept her business partner’s proposal to marry her in her small-town? You are the person responsible for building the most amazing, crazy holiday romance.

I looked for inspiration while writing the book. I wanted to read books that were similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure series… but written for adults. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many. These titles are my top recommendations for adults looking to recreate that magic, joy and terror they experienced reading Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays

Mike MacDonald/Jilly Gagnon Mike MacDonald was a graduate of The Onion. Jilly and Jilly are masters of this “what if… a choice-yourself-path book tackled excruciatingly mundane labors of adulthood?” format. The Choose Your Own Misery books have three books. The Holidays is number 2. Choose Your Own Misery: Holidays is an amusing parody perfect for everyone. This book is about you, the author, who desperately wants to take a break from family holidays. It’s impossible to predict the amount of disasters and misfortune that await you. You can only find out by reading this book.

choose your own adventure books for adults

10 Interactive Books to Help Grownups

“Bandersnatch,” Black Mirror’s interactive Netflix narrative experience, grabbed a lot of attention over the holidays , but innovative as it is, interactive fiction of this sort isn’t anything new. The Choose Your Own Adventure books are a classic and page-turning series for kids. There’s also text adventures like Zork that make use of Laserdiscs and CD-ROMs. It’s an interesting concept. However, Charlie Brooker uses the dark, speculative perspective of the show to examine issues such as mental health, free will and storytelling’s nature to look at them.

Here are 10 more interactive narratives that adults can use if they get lost in the “Bandersnatch” labyrinth.

paperback $12.99 Maze – A Riddle In Words and Pictures Christopher Manson

Paperback $12.99 MAZE

, by Christopher Manson When MAZE was published in 1985, Manson offered a prize for the first reader who came up with the correct solution to the puzzle it creates; no one ever officially won, though it has since been solved, at least. It is an interactive fiction novel. Each spread contains a woodcut illustration of a room within the maze. The basic story involves a group entering the maze. At each turn, a guide will describe their adventures in amusing and humorous ways. You must find the shortest way from Room 1 and 45 to reach Room 45. Then, you need to use the clues provided along the route to create a puzzle. Finally, answer the riddle. You will feel immersed in the mystery of every room. The lack of direction and detail combined create an unsettling feeling of immersion. There’s lots of enjoyment in finding new routes, and making sure you get to every room. Even the rooms that aren’t essential have interesting details.

MAZE, by Christopher Manson. When MAZE first appeared in 1985, Manson gave a prize to the first person who solved the puzzle. However, it was never officially awarded, but it is now known that it was successfully solved. The interactive fiction book is a story that can be used as a guide. Each spread includes soaring woodcut illustrations of one area in the maze. The story is simple: a group of people enter the maze, and a mysterious guide describes their efforts to figure out what’s going on in acerbic and often hilarious ways. The puzzle: find the shortest path from Room 1 to Room 45 and back, use the clues along that route to formulate a riddle, then answer the riddle. You will feel immersed in the mystery of every room. The lack of direction and detail combined create an unsettling feeling of immersion. Like “Bandersnatch”, there is much to be done in order to find different routes and ensure you see every detail.

choose your own adventure books for adults

These are the 5 Top Choose Your Own Adventure Books for Adults

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Writing a book is not an easy task. But there are books in a particular genre that challenge this notion. They provide that every book can have many endings. More than that, the reader should be able to control the plot and the endings. This genre is known lovingly as “choose your adventure.” Before we talk about the best “

23 Choose Your Own Adventure Books For Grown-Ups

“>choose your own adventure books for adults,” let’s jump back 30 years.

Once a staple of an 80’s and 90’s childhood, these books were formatted so that after a few pages of reading, a choice would be presented. The possibilities are endless when it comes to endings. Many of us forgot about these books’ existence long ago, thinking they were a genre reserved for the mystery of childhood.

But this book genre continues to be popular even today with many books written for adults. No longer are these fun choose-your-own-destiny novels reserved for school kids. It’s now possible to find adventure books that are suitable for adult readers and use them as resources in education.

Are you excited to begin your next adventure in a novel? You’re ready to embark on your next harrowing novel adventure? We have collected some top-rated “choose yourself an adventure” books as well as teaching and research resources.

choose your own adventure books for adults

2. If

Nicholas Bourbaki. Are you one of those people who asks “What if?” Often? Many of us spend much of our days wondering if making a different decision could have somehow altered the entire course of our lives. Nicholas Bourbaki’s book “If” has been called one of the greatest “choose you own adventure” books. This novel forces readers to face existential issues head-on.

Your name is not given, but you start the book as an anonymous protagonist from California’s Northern halves. Each chapter ends with you being presented with the opportunity to choose and be forced into a major decision. These choices don’t only affect the plot but they also define your character and identity. The novel is fast moving towards 22 possible endings.

Unlike a traditional “choose your own adventure” book, every choice you make in ‘If’ affects the book’s literary style and the plot itself. It is a novel that is interactive in every sense of the word. You can choose to travel anywhere from rural Guatemala to Berlin or Manhattan. Every choice that you make changes the novel. You will be asked questions such as “What are the boundaries of freedom?” and “How much do you have control over someone’s lives?”

It is not for everyone but deep thinkers who want to reflect deeply about freedom, life, and choice will love this book.

Amazon

choose your own adventure books for adults

3. You can create your own Jane Austen Adventure by getting lost in Austen

Emma Campbell Webster Jane Austen characters may be some of our most iconic and memorable. Yet, many of us can’t help but think, “What if our well-loved Jane Austen novels ended a bit differently?” ‘Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster finally allows lovers of Jane Austen and classic literature to take these iconic characters and choose their own Jane Austen-style adventure.

The character of Elizabeth Bennet begins your adventure. Elizabeth is eager for the right man and searching for love, just like most Austen heroines. It’s not as easy as you think. Each new selection could lead you to “Emma,” “Sense and Sensibility” or other Jane Austen novels. You will be enchanted by this new interpretation of a romance classic that Austen loves.

It is your choice that will make this book a best-seller for adults. Although your decisions will affect the course of your life, how successful you are in each category will impact your ability to achieve your goals. Each of these five areas will be listed on separate pieces of paper. High scores in Intelligence, Confidence, and Fortune are your starting points. However, you will have low scores in luck, accomplishments and connections. It is important to work hard to raise your score in order to have a better chance at marrying.

Austen-lovers will find this a refreshing take on the genre. This was an amazing book.

Amazon

choose your own adventure books for adults

5. The Clone Trial

Zach Weinersmith Scifi and Netflix lovers will enjoy Trail of the Clone. This book is a choice-based pathway gamebook, which allows you to interact with the environment around you and explore over 500 scenes. There are thousands of possible new routes.

The novel offers readers the option to either read to the very end, or to fully engage with it by tracking items, battles and other statistics. Unlike some “choose your own adventure” books, this one challenges you to reread the book many times to catch the secrets hidden along the way.

It combines the best of interactive fiction and role-playing with modern video games. The novel begins with you as a clone, created in a laboratory during dystopian times. The choices you make will affect the stats of your character and give them new capabilities. The book can either keep track or you can let it do the work. This book doubles well as a jokebook.

What’s more, the book also has an app to integrate technology into your read. The book, “choose Your Own Adventure” is for adults. However, this will appeal to those who love sci-fi but not the genre. Those who do enjoy futuristic dystopia will still find it enjoyable.

Amazon

choose your own adventure books for adults

“Choose your Own Adventure” for Grown-Ups

Download iframe Src=”https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91371623/91371599 (100%)” width=”290″ height=”290” frameborder=”0” scrolling=”no”> Transcript Does today’s hero slay the monsters Rescue damsels in distress? How can you defeat your foes during war?

Robert Powers claims that even the most heroic and difficult modern tasks are based on making everyday choices about one’s life.

And unlike superheroes, most of us fail spectacularly.

Because in the stories we all write in our heads, as long as we don’t choose, we still feel anything is possible, says Powers. The true heroes of this era are those who overcome the paralysis caused by choice.

Powers uses the style of popular books “Choose Your Own Adventure”, to help illustrate his theme. Readers would follow a different story line depending on how they chose to interpret the characters. The readers’ choices influenced the outcome.

He calls You Are a Miserable Excuse to a Hero an adventure that is aimed at adults. Powers starts the exercise by giving a note on “A Note On Being in Your Thirties And Having Accomplished Very Limited.” Powers then tells Powers about your character’s background: “You feel that time is running out for yourself to make anything of it,” he wrote. “Each choice seems weighted with fear that it might send you down the path of FAILURE… You’ve tried your hardest to avoid making any decisions. And this is how the story begins: You’ve just gone on a great date with an attractive woman named Julia. A call comes from kidnappers demanding $50,000. Julia will be safe returning home the following morning. Either ask your parents, or refuse to pay and go to bed with your ex.

Powers said that it comes down to making a moral decision, with some humor. He says, “You are trying to decide if it’s worth the risk and if you have enough responsibility.” She said, “It was great and you didn’t know her.” Why can’t you find someone to take the money to? She turns out to be new in town. This is how the story begins. It’s a thrilling adventure that ends with heroic and unlikely endings. “There are very few endings where you can save the girl and make yourself a better person but not many,” Powers said. “Most of the time you just die or you do nothing.”

Do They Still Make Choose Your Own Adventure Books?

There’s a good chance that you can recall the fun of choosing an adventure book when you were growing up. These books can still be shared with students. There are also a number of other series which follow the same pattern. Sep 2, 2021

What’s the biggest Choose Your Own Adventure Book?

It all sounds pretty Bandersnatch, I think. Crown of Kings IV, the fourth and longest book ever published, weighs in at a staggering 260 pages. If there is a real-life Bandersnatch book, this is it.Jan 12, 2019

What Are The Books Called Where You Choose What Happens?

Choose Your Own Adventure or Secret Path Books are a series for children that features a selection of stories written in second person. The reader assumes the role of the protagonist, making decisions that will affect the outcome of the story.

.Choose Your Own Adventure Books For Adults

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