Digital book publishers unveil interactive reading

Some academics cringe while other see readers’ direction of plots as the future of reading

What if Romeo and Juliet lived happily ever after, or Van Helsing decided Dracula wasn’t worth the trouble? In a high-tech twist on Choose Your Own Adventure, “active fiction” imbues readers with precisely that kind of power.

Launching this month in Amazon’s Kindle Store, Coliloquy e-books are peppered with “choice points” that allow readers to take the story in the direction most appealing to them — whether it’s experiencing a critical moment through another character’s eyes, setting the protagonist on a new path, or seeing what a