IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER by Italo Calvino - A wonderful novel/folktale/spectacle that’s perhaps the best example of work of straight prose fiction that manages simultaneously to frustrate and delight the reader’s expectations, in something like the same way as the best IF narratives.
THE DIAMOND AGE, or A YOUNG GIRL’S ILLUSTRATED PRIMER by Neal Stephenson - A science fiction novel that brilliantly envisions the possible uses of interactive stories as tools for the raising and education of children. An absolutely wonderful read.
READY, OKAY! by Adam Cadre - The first novel by IFs most (justly) celebrated writer, author of the classic IF stories “Shrapnel,” “Varicella” and “Photopia,” and one of the judges for LOTECHComp. A tragicomic story of dissolute teenagers, and something of a Fable For Our Times.
LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE by John Barth - A personal favorite of mine - a resolutely experimental set of short stories that often manages to convey the peculiar and enchanting digressiveness of an IF story. The title story is perhaps the closest that any conventional writer in English has ever gotten to the feeling of IF. And the piece entitled “Meneleiad” is my pick for the most moving short story about love ever written in the English language.
NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH by Ayn Rand - This really IS a piece of interactive fiction - a clever and controversial play by the loony American sub-philosopher and crypto-fascist, the ending of which gets to be determined by the audience. Loads of fun.
THE CAVE OF TIME by Edward Packard - The original 1979 paperback of the first ever Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. Rather shabbily written and indifferently illustrated - nonetheless, something of a cultural benchmark.
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