Take Me to the Source: In Search of Water [Hardcover]

Rupert Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2008

Colorless, tasteless, odorless, ageless: water is both the simplest thing on earth and the most complex. We cannot live without it, yet water-borne illnesses kill 6,000 children a day. It is the ultimate renewable resource but we pollute it on a heroic scale. In this enthralling voyage of discovery, Rupert Wright sets out to discover exactly what water is and why it plays such an important role in history, culture, art, and literature. He penetrates to the heart of the development world supposedly bringing piped water to the poor, and visits a bishop in Brazil willing to give up his life to save a river and a child in India who waits by the roadside every morning for a bucket of water. Why, if water is so valuable does nobody want to pay for it unless it comes in a designer bottle? Is it really the oil of the 21st century? Will we all soon be fighting over it, or can it lead countries into cooperation rather than conflict?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intriguing but uneven study of water—and its material and symbolic necessity to human life—divides investigations into major themes as diverse as water's curious chemistry, its role in the history of pathology and torture, its widespread bottling and branding, and its inspiration to philosophers and artists. Moving from Kenya's flower industry to India's heavily polluted Yamuna River, the narrative settles into a perfunctory, slapdash rhythm (augmented by the author's jarring, self-consciously literary flourishes tagged onto the end of each chapter), but at its best it is a fascinating lens for viewing human progress and imagination. There is an underlying politics to the desultory journey as well, and Wright, a former water consultant to the World Bank, eventually gets practical with a list of 10 commandments for water projects. Readers interested in such policy specifics will necessarily wade through much else besides, and may balk at the terse treatment Wright gives to complex issues. General readers in search of a lively and diverting survey will find this wide-ranging discussion often surprising if only fitfully engaging. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

“An optimistic read in these ecologically troubled times.”
– Financial Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846550718
• ISBN-13: 978-1846550713
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,571,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Irritating., November 25, 2008

By 

Eli (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Me to the Source: In Search of Water (Hardcover)

I'm sure this book will receive mixed reviews, or, perhaps I will be one of the few that becomes irritated by the faintly hidden wisdom of Rupert Wright.

I found myself wanting to throw this book against the wall as I tasted once again, the author's opinionated flavour in a book that was touted as being an "enthralling voyage of discovery".

This could have been a much better book, if Mr Wright could have lowered his nose, stepped out of what I'm imagining to be a college-boy ego, and stuck to the facts.

I am now searching for a book on the same subject that will inform and not, as in "Take Me to the Source", have me feeling like I'm being told. Sadly I'm returning it to the library after two and a bit chapters.