Introduction and asking about IF books

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Hello all,
I have been a long-time fan of IF, have even tried writing something in Inform7, but it never got further than betatesting. I have also known about this forum for a long time, but I have registered only now.
I am from Serbia and am working at the Institute of Art and Literature in Belgrade, Serbia. My Institude is developing an online cultural studies dictionary, which will include many different sorts of literary and cultural concepts. As one of the contributors I suggested the term Interactive Fiction, it was accepted, and I am now tasked with writing an entry about it. I should also provide a further reading or a bibliography part.
So here comes my question: can someone provide some metadata about some books dealing with IF? If there are any books available for free or online, you can also share them.
Thank you very much in advance for your answer, and best regards!

Miloš Pržić

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The only one I know off the top of my head is 50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon by Aaron A. Reed

Hardcover ISBN: 9798985966107
Softcover ISBN: 9798985966114
eBook also available

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@mathbrush is also working on a book about IF, though I don’t know if it’s been released yet.

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In fact it has been:

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There are some books mentioned on the IFWiki, for instance at Book list. Couple of selections not already mentioned:

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A couple that spring to mind:

Espen Aarseth - Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (1997)

This is an academic text from the 90s that examines the place of digital forms, including hypertext and other IF, in literature and aesthetics

Anna Anthropy - Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form (2012)

This is part memoir, part DIY game design guide, that delves into some of the principles and potentialities of solo-authored games and makes heavy reference to Twine as a tool

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It’s now a little bit dated (look like it hasn’t been updated since 2011?), but Jimmy Maher’s Let’s Tell a Story Together is a pretty good overview of the history of parser IF.

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Specifically of interest for parser games, there’s The Craft of the Adventure by Graham Nelson, the creator of Inform.

It’s on the Internet Archive:

The Craft of Adventure : Graham Nelson : Internet Archive

In fact, Jimmy Maher’s entire blog about the evolution of text games is worth a read:
The Digital Antiquarian (filfre.net)

And Drew Cook delves deeply into the Infocom catalogue on this blog:
Gold Machine - Games as text, text as games (golmac.org)

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Not quite a book, but Emily Short’s blog is packed with analysis and knowledge, especially if you dig into the archives: https://emshort.blog

A bit newer, but similarly scholarly The Rosebush: https://the-rosebush.com

Not a book but a fascinating video, Get Lamp is a documentary featuring many IF pioneers discussing IF and I believe is on YouTube.

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Let’s not forget the IFWiki. From the top of the homepage, there are links to entries about history, theory, craft, tools, and people. A bunch of sources have already been mentioned here, but it’s a big collection.

IFWiki

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Again, not a book, but if you are interested in tracing the early steps into interactive fiction then Jason Dyer’s blog is essential reading: All the Adventures | Renga in Blue

(His blog is essential reading anyway)

There are lots of books out there about 1980s text adventures but the ones mentioned above probably focus more on IF.

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