Chapter and introduction read, book returned...

Heckman caught an interview with the author of this one on NPR a while back, and she recommended it as something that might interest me since it devoted an entire chapter to two Biblical-themed miniature golf courses in Kentucky, one of which I visited this past year with some of my students on a weekend outing.

The book was kind of interesting, the author putting forth the idea that the roadside religion - which he largely referred to as outsider religion in relation to outsider art - as a crossing of a very private experience and belief with the very public need from those people to evangelize their beliefs. The idea's kind of a neat one, but the author's writing style is more of a travelogue (he went around and saw these places with his wife and two children in a big RV) into which he tries to tie his theory with mixed results.

I ended up reading the intro and the chapter about the two mini-golf courses then skimming the rest as my time with the book from the library was up. It was moderately interesting but far from earth-shattering.