It will only look like a bowling alley if there's nothing in the room. If that's everything you've read, you need different sources of information.

That room will be filled with appliances, tables, chairs, etc. The floor won't be an open area. I have no idea why the flooring would look so bad from one direction and not the other. You may want to post a couple of photos of the effect (and consider a different floor).

One thing you should always do is align the grain of the with the primary direction of travel. There's a good reason for that: it wears better. Scuffing and scraping are more likely to damage the wood if they go across the grain than with it.

I'm assuming this is a faux-wood-look type of product? If so, you will want to know the 'maximum length' it can run along the LONG axis of the plank (long edge runs the long edge of the room) vs. the maximum run of the SHORT AXIS of the plank. These two measurements are often two different lengths.

With a house that has a length of 40', you might find that you must have a transition strip somewhere along that 40ft length. The most obvious would be through the doorways.

I would choose the way the planks look 'the best'. if you don't like the 'dirty' look of direction 'A', then run it the other way.

What product are you using?

If you are installing it yourself, running length wise is so much easier than the multitude of cuts you will need to make running the short direction which can also increase the amount of materials you will need to complete the job. As a previous poster mentioned, once furniture is in you won’t notice. Our previous home had a narrow but long living and dining room. We ran the flooring lengthwise and once furniture was in we did not have a bowling alley effect.

Run it lengthwise for this room. It's the way your rugs are going to run and with the large window at the end, that will show up any irregularities in your floor if you run it widthwise.

I am using a a luxury engineered vinyl plank flooring in whitewashed oak. We have tried the flooring lengthwise and all you see are the dull areas where the fake knots and woodgrain are. That is my concern not really the bowling alley effect. All comments and input welcome.

I would think that way too but most people do not like concrete floors. IMO a fake wood floor should be layed exactly like a real wood one so lenghtwise for all the reasons listed. Remember a large amount of the floor will be covered with furniture .If you don’t like the knots why did you choose a floor with them?

I agree with Groveraxle - the concrete floors are begging to shine! Adding wood elements in furnishings/built-ins will warm things up and an area rug to define / anchor a space. However if you are determined to add the wooden floors then absolutely lengthwise.

THANKS EVERYONE for all the valuable input...priced out concrete polishing 10 x vinyl plank so not an option. Vinyl needs transition strip if longer than 35 feet which mine is. I hate the knots but picked vinyl because it's waterproof. Been looking for months and they all seem to have weird lines and knots.