Deepest grave, supreme deceiver....

......brave new worlds and cursed emotion

Just over 25 years ago, I sat in a typically depressing school classroom, listening to a typically depressing old codger of a teacher. A mate of mine pulled a book out of his bag after the lesson, and things changed overnight. As a 12-yr old, my reading habits of the time rarely ventured further than the latest Whizzer & Chips annual or whatever Marvel comic was doing the rounds. However, that night I was introduced to an intriguing new literary concept called Fighting Fantasy.

"It's a book you not only read, but you decide what to do in it" was how he described this book, enticingly called, "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain". And that's pretty much exactly what it was. Armed with only a couple of dice, a pencil, and a rubber, it was up to you which path you chose, which doors you opened, and which hideous monsters you fought. As you might imagine, for a 12-yr old in 1983, this was truly mesmerising stuff. Not only did it develop my reading skills, it also led me into more straightforward fiction novels, which I've not stopped reading since.

Although my reading habits have now progressed somewhat from fighting Orcs in a dark cavern, I recently returned to these Fighting Fantasy books. I kept most of the original series which I'd collected back in the day. I think I had around the first 34 of them, and over the last few months have tried to complete the 59-strong collection through the wonders of Amazon and E-Bay. I even started 'playing' a few of them again, and just like watching an old tv show, waves of nostalgia flooded over me, memories of a more innocent era returning.

Like any drug, the effects of nostalgia only last so long, but I'll keep this collection, and when my daughter is old enough, I'll introduce her to the wonders of goblins and demons. And that's before I ever take her to Recreation Park in Alloa for the football! The world is now full of Playstations and Nintendo Wiis, but I'd like to think there will still be a place for these wonderful paperbacks. There always will be for me, anyway.