Customer Reviews

Blue Rooms: Ripples, Rivers, Pools, and Other Waters

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John Jerome has, in recent years, become one of my favorite writers thanks to his elegant and straightforward prose style. I ordered "Blue Rooms" the moment I heard it was out, and I was not disappointed. This is a terrific book.

"Blue Rooms" is about a lifelong love affair with water. From playing in the muddy San Marcos river as a boy, to kayaking the cold waters of Canadian lakes as a grown man, it seems Jerome has always been fascinated by water. Most of the earth's surface, he points out, is water. So is most of the human body.

What strikes me most about this book is the way in which Jerome takes a personal obsession and makes it understandable to his readers. By the end of the book I could have sworn I had a lifelong love affair with water, too, even though I'm a mediocre swimmer who lives in hills far from any large water source. Really, this is a terrific book. Go out and buy it. You won't be sorry.

This is simply one of the very best books written about the joy, adventure, contact and contemplation of water. I have dipped into it frequently and recommended it to many. And I have quoted it 8 times (few authors other than Thoreau were quoted more frequently) in my own recent book Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water (nominated for top environmental book of the year). Jerome's prose is wonderful and his stories engaging. He simply loves to get wet and would well understand Thoreau's maxim: "That part of you that is wettest is fullest of life" (quoted in Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagement With Water, Green Frigate Books, 2003).