"Bowling Across America"

Mike Walsh is one of the world’s leading authorities on the geographic nuances of rented footwear. A graduate of Miami University, he grew up in a family of six children in Upper Arlington, Ohio. He lives in Chicago within walking distance of four bowling alleys.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new book, Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes, and reported the following:

There are few pages in Bowling Across America that don't have to do with bowling, pertinent details of the geography at hand, or some effort at poignancy via the inspiring story of someone I encountered during the trip. Page 69 is one of those pages. It is entirely a throw-away opening to a chapter on Pennsylvania that I use to set up tension that arises later in pages 70-71. In fact, due to clever page design, 69 is only 1/2 the page long, as a "handwritten" chart/illustration that it sets up was too big to fit in the space remaining on 69.

But, the page does include the book's sole mention of Burt Reynolds, and, thankfully, the only paraphrasing of the Deliverance line, "He sure got a pretty mouth!"

Learn more about the book and author at the Bowling Across America website and blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue