“Choose Your Own Adventure”, by Multiple Authors

 

Bantam Books

Along with Endless Quest series of books (reviewed on November 11^th, 2021) and The Three Investigators (reviewed on March 13^th, 2024), Choose Your Own Adventure books made up much of my adolescent reading schedule. As with Endless Quest (which it predates by three years), the Choose Your Own Adventure series are books aimed at adolescents in which each story is written from a second-person point of view with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome. The subject matter covered by these works was much broader than Endless Quest, which limited itself to All Things TSR, especially Dungeons & Dragons; thus, time travel, ocean voyages, desert adventures, outer space quests, mysteries, spy thrillers, westerns, medieval tales, road races…innumerable subjects could and were subjected to the CYOA treatment.

 

“The Cave of Time”, by Edward Packard
115 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232288
“Journey Under the Sea”, by R. A. Montgomery
117 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232295
“By Balloon to the Sahara”, by Douglas Terman
117 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553140057
“Space and Beyond”, by R. A. Montgomery
116 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553208917
“The Mystery of Chimney Rock”, by Edward Packard
122 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553209617
“Your Code Name Is Jonah”, by Edward Packard
114 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553209136
“The Third Planet from Altair”, by Edward Packard
117 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553139785
“Deadwood City”, by Edward Packard
113 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553139945
“Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?”, by Edward Packard
122 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553231816
“The Lost Jewels of Nabooti”, by R. A. Montgomery
121 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232318
“Mystery of the Maya”, by R. A. Montgomery
134 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553231861
“Inside UFO 54-40”, by Edward Packard
118 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553201970
“The Abominable Snowman”, by R. A. Montgomery
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553233322
“The Forbidden Castle”, by Edward Packard
118 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232363
“House of Danger”, by R. A. Montgomery
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553225419
“Survival at Sea”, by Edward Packard
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553227680
“The Race Forever”, by R. A. Montgomery
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553259889
“Underground Kingdom”, by Edward Packard
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232929
“Secret of the Pyramids”, by Richard Brightfield
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232950
“Escape”, by R. A. Montgomery
128 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0553232943

And, for the most part, they were all cool, too. I mean, everything from my youth is seen through a diaphanous haze of nostalgia in which all that was good is crystal clear while all that was bad is blissfully hidden. But I recall not being able to wait for bedtime when I could crack one of these bad boys open and read by the light of an old office lamp my Dad had attached to my headboard. In the years before I discovered History and the Great Men of the World, these books were what thrilled and, to a certain extent, educated me. And they all ignited that love of reading that I have still to this day (as well as my love of collecting books, a blessing and a curse, if I’m to be honest). Choose Your Own Adventure – AND Endless Quest AND The Three Investigators – are just a few of the treasured jewels from my childhood that I will cherish always and that will remain even after these books have crumbled to dust.

“Apollo: The Mission to Land a Man on the Moon” by Al Cimino

 

192 pages, Chartwell Books, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0785837039

Chartwell Books is one of these publishers that produces big, splashy, colorful and informative books for the general reader that I get for cheap from the Barnes & Noble overstock shelves or from Ollie’s book section or even from 2^nd & Charles when I’m in the mood. Apollo: The Mission to Land a Man on the Moon by Al Cimino came from the Barnes & Noble overstock shelf and is everything you’d expect from a Chartwell production: while less than 200 pages it’s a big book, and each and every one of those pages is packed with pictures, text, graphs, informational boxes and so on. Again, just what you’d expect from Chartwell.

While there are a wide range of subjects and events covered in this book – all of the Apollo missions are discussed, as are the Astronauts, engineers, technical aspects of the missions and so forth – this is not what I would call an in-depth study of Apollo. It is, rather, a splashy overview of the American achievement of putting men on the moon and bringing them back again, if only for a few years. Not uninformative in the least, just more of an introduction to the Apollo program. There are, however, several problems with this book, for I think the editors were asleep at the wheel when it was produced. These include, but are not limited to (*ahem*):

• pg. 6 – Werner Von Braun was not captured by the US Army; he surrendered
• pg. 16 – 8000 meters isn’t 2500 feet and 2500 feet isn’t 1.5 miles
• pg. 21 – the Thor rockets were IRBMs (Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles) not ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles)
• pg. 21 – the Jupiter rockets were single stage rockets, not two; the September 20^th flight referred to as a “Jupiter” was a Jupiter-C which was based on the Redstone rockets
• pg. 21 – the Vanguard rockets were not developed as military rockets, as implied
• pg. 26 – the Vanguard was described by Khrushchev as a “grapefruit”, not Explorer 1
• pg. 45 – while Deke Slayton was one of the original Mercury 7 Astronauts he in fact was medically disqualified to fly, as stated
• pg. 48 – the Mercury-Redstone rockets had solid retro rocket motors not retro-rocket thrusters
• pg. 48 – the Atlas rockets did not use liquid oxygen as a fuel but as an oxidizer
• pg. 57 – Huntsville, Alabama, was home to the Marshall Space Flight Center, not the Manned Space Flight Center
• pg. 60 – the Apollo 1 cabin pressure was only slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, not 1.5 times higher, so that the engineers could check for leaks
• pg. 68 – he Saturn V rocket was assembled next to the launch umbilical tower, not atop it
• pg. 73 – the on the Couch-Restraint System were on the side panels, not on the couch itself
• pg. 78 – Conrad’s full name was in fact Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr.
• pg. 88 – Cimino states that “Two of the 2nd stage engines gave out during liftoff” on Apollo 4, which is incorrect: the 2^nd stage engines were not burning at liftoff and when they did fire, they worked properly (he is perhaps confusing Apollo 4 with Apollo 6)
• pg. 88 – Apollo 4 did not “keel over”
• pg. 92 – there was no Lunar Module on Apollo 7 as stated
• pg. 92 – Apollo 7 did not fly over terrain that “had never been seen before”
• pg. 108 – the astronauts did not wear “metallic suits” as stated
• pg. 110 – the text has the Rocketdyne J-2 engines firing before the ullage rockets
• pg. 111 – the Lunar orbit insertion burn occurred behind the moon, not on approach
• pg. 111 – no explosives were involved in LM/CSM separation
• pg. 140 – the flotation collar was applied by the recovery team swimmers, not by Collins
• pg. 169 – text states Scott cut the descent “engines” when there was only one

I stopped counting after that. So, what to do? If you get it cheap – like I did – then this is a good buy, but under no circumstances pay full price for this thing. Maybe check it out if your local library has it, and then just look at all of the pictures.

“Tutankhamun: The Untold Story” by Thomas Hoving

 

384 pages, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-0671243050

Say, do you miss Borders as much as I do? I’ll bet you do. Between them and Barnes & Noble (2^nd & Charles had yet to make an appearance) I acquired hundreds of books, new and used, for my library – for cheap, too. Like this one, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving, which tells the tale of how the tomb of King Tut was discovered, cataloged, restored and brought to light in 1922. Written in 1978, I got it for a mere $4.55, which all good-hearted people can agree is a bargain, make no mistake. Even though this book is 30+ years old it is still (as far as I know) the definitive account of the events surrounding the rediscovery of this most-famous of Pharaohs.

I found myself exceeding my typical chapter-a-day reading schedule with this one, as the title of the book is true: there are many tales surrounding the discovery and opening of this tomb that were unknown, at least by me (and others, I imagine; everything I have read or watched about King Tut’s tomb failed to mention much of the information I gleamed from this book). For instance, the fact that both Howard Carter and his benefactor Lord Carnarvon illegally entered the tomb before announcing its discovery, or that, contrary to popular belief, while the tomb was mostly intact, it had been broken into and robbed on previous occasions in the past.

But wait! There’s more…Carter and Lord Carnarvon not only practiced “art dealing of a rather cutthroat and questionable variety” – that is, they up and sold ancient artifacts for the cash they needed to support their digs – but also spirited numerous items out of Egypt against Egyptian law (some of which can still be found in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; indeed, Carter’s biggest attempted theft was discovered and then covered up, with help from the Met). Meanwhile, Carter’s unbalanced, combative behavior in dealing with Egyptian/French authorities was largely responsible for the end of friendly conditions for archaeologists in Egypt.

But all this came after such dedication and persistence on the part of the difficult Carter and the patient Carnarvon, for after five years of fruitlessly searching the “played out” Valley of the Kings, just when they were about to give up, their efforts were at last crowned by success; the fact that the tomb was actually the long-lost Tutankhamun’s was just gravy. Add to that the description of the first tour of the interior (whether Carter was cheating by undertaking it) and the account of the gradual peeling away of the layers of the magnificent tomb at the center of which lay the remains of the King…considering all that it is quite possible to forgive most trespasses.

Be warned, however: while the mechanics of discovering, accessing, cataloging, preserving and removing the many treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are presented, the main thrust of the story involves the politics behind all of that; Carter fighting with the press, with the antiquities department, with other archeologists, with the governments not only of Egypt and Britain but of America and others, and so on (rather too much, if I’m to be honest). All of which distracts from what should be the main thrust of the story: the treasures and their meanings to the Ancient Egyptians. Not that it was without interest…just not THAT much interest.

While many of these stories may be familiar to many of us today, they were not when first collected together into one source by Hoving in this book from 40+ years ago, and for that there is no reason to despise Tutankhamun: The Untold Story.

“Ford Model T Coast to Coast: A Slow Drive across a Fast Country”, by Tom Cotter

 

224 pages, Motorbooks, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0760359464

In Ford Model T Coast to Coast: A Slow Drive across a Fast Country, author Tom Cotter recounts his trip on the historic Lincoln Highway in his Ford Model T and all of the people whom he encounters along the way. This was without question an interesting read in which his iconic Model T served as the ultimate ice-breaker along this timeless road. Incidentally, the Lincoln Highway was the first road designed with automobiles in mind across the United States and runs coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California (but not Michigan?!). His stops along the way are a perfect alternative to the fast-moving superhighways, and the many small-town he visits show that he has an interest in out-of-the-way America and all it has to offer – although a map of his route and the places he stopped at would have been nice.

With all that positivity, there are some negatives, the most glaring of which is his banging on about how we need to build more windmills to save the Earth…as he pollutes the same in a gasoline automobile. In response, I’d just like to inform Mr. Cotter that these windmills he loves are not the unmitigated panacea he thinks they are: they are enormous bird-killers, exist because of government subsidies and cannot prosper without them, the amount of maintenance – especially oil – they require is counterproductive, they cannot be recycled and fill up landfills at an alarming rate and, besides, they are just plain ugly. Would that Cotter had stuck with describing the wonders of our nation between the elitist coasts and the people who populate the same, but, perhaps in penance for polluting the nation in his toxin-spewing Model T, he felt compelled to sing the praises of this dubious alternative energy boondoggle (sure am glad I paid a mere $6.99 from Ollie’s for this, rather than the retail $35 The Henry Ford wanted for it).

Anyway…my advise is to skip the preachy bits and enjoy this latter-day road trip manual as the celebration of America as it should be; I, for one, would dearly love to make my own trip upon the Lincoln Highway one day and discover all that America has to offer those who are willing to look for it, far from the maddening crowds.