[dasfsi]

One book I read did a similar thing, but managed to do it spoiler-free. There was a magical crystal, I think, that did some magical things. When you pick it up, the book says "To use the crystal, look at paragraph (current paragraph + 20)" and the author actually managed to do that for the most paragraphs from then onwards

[iainmerrick]

An old gamebook series that did lots of this is Steve Jackson's Sorcery! -- I wonder if that could be what you're thinking of?

More recently, Jason Shiga has used clever mechanics like this a lot in comic book form, notably in Meanwhile. He's just finished a three-part series aimed at younger readers, Adventuregame Comics. All Shiga's stuff is great, highly recommended.