Starting on page 69

After a lifetime of reading, I have only now heard of the Page 69 Test.

Proposed by Marshall McLuhan, author of The Medium is the Message, the Page 69 Test is intended as a quick way to determine if you might enjoy reading a book. Instead of reading the first page, as many of us do, McLuhan suggested reading page 69. If you like what you read, take the book home with you. Otherwise, put it back on the shelf and try another one.

Why page 69? It sounds arbitrary, and mostly is arbitrary. Yet by the 69th page the author has stopped showing off, as often happens early in a book, and has gotten into the plot, in the case of a novel, or into the subject matter, in the case of nonfiction. True, the reader will lack the advantage of knowing what has gone on before. Who are these characters? What is going on? What is this book about? Someone reading page 69 before pages 1-68 will have no idea. But at page 69 a reader should be able to tell if the writing a interesting or not. 

Reading the first page first, the question is, do I want to see what happens next? Opening the book to page 69, the question becomes, do I want to find out what happened before? If not, why bother?

But does the Page 69 Test really work? I pulled down some notable novels from my shelves. Let's see what happens on page 69.

Page 69 of The Catcher in the Rye is just dull. Sorry, McLuhan. Holden is drinking Coke and dancing with girls in a bar. Not very interesting. Yet page 68 is terrific. It includes these lines: "That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you half fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are." Now that makes me want to read the book — again.

On the 69th page in To Kill a Mockingbird, it is snowing in Maycomb County for the first time since 1885, and the children are delighted, hoping there will be enough accumulation to build their first snowman. Good stuff. This is a winner.

McLuhan wins again in A Confederacy of Dunces. Page 69 finds Ignatius talking about the only job he has ever had. He lasted two weeks pasting labels in new books at the New Orleans Public Library. "On some days I could only paste in three or four slips and at the same time feel satisfied with the quality of my work," Ignatius says.

Page 69 of Brave New World is totally confusing. Much better to start at the beginning of this one.

I am not convinced the Page 69 Test is worth the trouble, although it might be better to try it with a book I have not already read.