The Greatest Bowling Books of All-Time
BY BOB JOHNSON
It has been a long time since a really good book was written about bowling.
There's never been a big market for bowling books, even when league bowling was at its peak and "Pro Bowlers Tour" was blowing away the competition on Saturday afternoon TV.
And that's sad, because there are literally thousands of fascinating bowling stories that deserve to be immortalized in book form.
My personal collection of tenpin books is pretty extensive, and it includes everything from historical references to humor compilations, and instructional treatises to coffee table picture books.
Sadly, most bowling books written in recent years share a certain sameness. They seem to be produced with a not-so-secret formula:
o Get a big-name bowler to "front" the project.
o Get a ghostwriter to handle the actual writing.
o Include plenty of basic instructional material (some books in my "library" are nearly identical in this area).
o Load it up with photos, drawings and charts.
o And whatever you do, don't even think about being candid or, God forbid, provocative. (The rule of thumb here is that the reader is dumb, and can't handle any subject matter that might make him think a little bit.)
As a result, the last really good bowling book I've read was published in 1988. And even it had little to do about the sport of bowling; Dr. George Allen's "From Bureaucracy to Democracy" was about the inner workings of the bowling industry.
You can still find a few of my favorites if you know where to look or are willing to scour enough thrift stores. Long-established libraries also can be good sources.
Trust me on this: If you manage to track down any of "Bob Johnson's Top 5 Bowling Books of All-Time," you'll be rewarded with hours of enjoyable and enlightening reading . . .
No. 5 -- "Fitting and Drilling"
Bill Taylor's "bible" for pro shop operators. Although ball technology has overtaken some of the material, countless ball drillers learned the basics from this book, and most still swear by its material. For anyone curious about the science of bowling, this is the place to start.
No. 4 -- "From Bureaucracy to Democracy"
Nobody researched the bowling business better than Dr. George Allen, who died just a few years after this book was published. Had he lived, he would have seen virtually all of his predictions come true. Allen did a masterful job of identifying the symptoms of bowling's decline and an even better job of suggesting cures. If only more people had listened.
No. 3 -- "The Perfect Game"
Herman Weiskopf, who began writing for Sports Illustrated the year I was born (how's that for an obscure stat?), published this marvelously-written, elaborately-illustrated history of our sport in 1978. Except for Bowlers Journal's history-drenched anniversary issues, nobody has ever done a more thorough job of chronicling our game's greatest moments and greatest players. "The Perfect Game" could have moved up a notch or two on the list had Weiskopf not wasted many pages on instructional information that was neither new nor necessary.
No. 2 -- "Par Bowling"
The most thorough, technically accurate and helpful instructional book ever written about bowling. Period. No other book has even come close. Written by Tom Kouros, it deserves to be the best-selling bowling book ever. (And it is.)
No. 1 -- "Bowling Secrets from the Pros"
I can hear you talking amongst yourselves -- or perhaps to yourself: "Okay, if Johnson says all instructional books are pretty much the same except for 'Par Bowling,' how could an instructional book other than 'Par Bowling' rank No. 1 on his list?" Good question. And here's my good answer: Because this isn't really an instructional book; its title is deceptive.
This 158-page paperback, about the size of a romance novel, consists of 13 mini-profiles of stars bowlers - including Dick Weber, Don Carter, Carmen Salvino and Dave Soutar - and even more mini thumbnails of numerous other players.
We learn that Weber had an article written about him the first time he ever bowled (at age 7!), that Carter used to make as much money in a year as Mickey Mantle, that Salvino is a rare Chicagoan who roots for both the Cubs and the White Sox, and that when Soutar married for the first time, he spent his honeymoon in Winstom-Salem, North Carolina - bowling in a PBA tournament.
At the end of each bowler's profile, author Frank Graham Jr. managed to sneak in a brief bowling tip - and that's the extent of this "instructional" book's instructions. In truth, it's a multi-person biography disguised as a teaching tome.
When "Bowling Secrets from the Stars" was published in 1962, it sold for 50 cents. When I bought it at a thrift store in 1982, I paid 10 cents.
The folks in Greendale have long claimed that membership in the ABC is bowling's best value.
I respectfully disagree.
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