RP340 The Adventure of Books

 RP340 The Adventure of Books

There is nothing a bookworm loves more than getting absorbed into the world of an engaging novel. In the near future, however, the humble paper-and-ink book is set to take a dive headfirst into the new and exciting dimension of interactive reading.
What if there was a way in which you could receive an email from the main character? What if actually visiting one of the places mentioned in the story opened up a whole new chapter? Suppose performing certain tasks in real life revealed new secret plot lines in the story. Imagine becoming truly involved with the story's narrative by adding to the story yourself. These are just some of the features that are available to the readers of interactive books right now. In addition, readers can even download interactive story apps onto their phones.
Even though this sounds revolutionary, in fact, readers have been getting involved with plot lines for almost half a century. Choose Your Own Adventure books began to be published in the 1970s. The reader was given a choice at the end of every few pages. For example, the sentence—“If you would like to question the gardener, turn to page 23”—was written to give the reader the option of where the story went next. Each choice would eventually lead the reader to one of around 40 different endings.
Video games have also made use of interactive fiction. Text adventure games were some of the first computer games ever made. Players simply had to input commands such as "open the mailbox" or "leave the house" in order to advance the plot.
A variation on text adventure games that are very popular in Japan is the visual novel. These kinds of games use still manga images, have background music, and usually involve very little game play. Occasionally, readers are expected to make a choice between plot strands, but otherwise the experience is all about the story. Most PC games now sold in Japan are visual novels.
Whatever ends up becoming the future of books, be it on paper or on screen, it seems readers will never tire of finding new ways to get drawn into a juicy plot.