The Sauna Book [Hardcover]

Tom Johnson (Author), Tim Miller (Author), Patrick McGauley (Illustrator), Julie Belsaas (Illustrator), Gordon Moorman (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 197 pages
• Publisher: Harper & Row; 1st edition (April 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060122196
• ISBN-13: 978-0060122195
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,737,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sauna Book jacket blurb, August 16, 2011

By 

Tom Johnson (Santa Fe, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sauna Book (Hardcover)

Sauna -- dry-heat sweat bathing -- has long been popular in Europe, especially in Russia and Scandinavia. Known by its many thousands of devotees to provide a new level in sensual pleasure and bodily well-being, sauna is becoming increasingly popular with North Americans. Now this first complete book of the sauna tells you everything you need to know about it.

The Sauna Book introduces you to the long and fascinating sauna tradition, from ancient Scythia in Central Asia to the sweat lodges of the Native Americans, to the great communal bathing of Finland. It explores in detail the effects of sauna on the body, especially its uses in promoting good health. It explains how a sauna is taken and suggests new ways to achieve the fullest enjoyment of the bath. It discusses and evaluates equipment and accessories and shows you that found objects and improvisation often produce better results than high-priced ready-made items.

Most important, The Sauna Book is the first and only book that tells in detail how you can design and make your own sauna, much of it from inexpensive or even free materials. The ideas are good elementary ones and the aim is to suggest the means of planning and executing a handsome bathhouse of your own that will contribute immeasurably to your realization of the good life. Dozens of detailed illustrations show how to build a sauna on any scale that will meet your need, from a large country outbuilding to a closet-sized room in an apartment. Kits and other readv-mades are evaluated too, and the book is punctuated by useful and entertaining marginal notes on everything from the thermal potentials of different species of firewood to Indian sweathouse songs that you may want to use for meditation in your own sauna.

Sauna bathing is the coming thing, and for those who are curious to learn about it or are already seriously committed to sauna as a way of life, this handsome, heavily illustrated book will be an indispensable guide.