Foundational Texts: Forks and Branches

It takes just two pages before you're forced to make a choice in the Cave of Time. Foundational Texts is a monthly essay series for 2026 looking at some of the culture that shaped me and how it still resonates today. Read all the installments: January: Jenny Holzer | February: The Goonies | March: The Channel 5 News Team | April: The Cave of Time What if you could change everything? That was question posed to me when I picked up The Cave of Time, the first installment in the groundbreaking Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series of books created by Edward Packard back in the early 1980s. If you're unfamiliar with this particular book, you're certainly familiar with the concept: You read for a bit and then are faced with a choice. If you choose one thing, you turn to one page. If you choose another, you go somewhere else in the book. It was for me—and I think for a lot of kids, even still today—a revelation: you held what felt like infinite possibilities in your hand. Your fate was yours to…