Water From The Sky [Paperback]

Michael Reynolds (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Solar Survival Pr (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962676756
• ISBN-13: 978-0962676758
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #887,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you are looking for a clear concise book on how to harvest and use rainwater, look elsewhere., June 17, 2010

By 

Kathleen Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Water From The Sky (Paperback)

There are things to like about this book. Photos of the beautiful earthships that Michael Reynolds has built will have you yearning for one of your own. He is an inventive and original thinker, and it is fun to read about what he has tried over the years, what has worked and what hasn't. But if you are looking for a "how-to" book, to build your own rainwater collection system, this is not it. At least half of it is a preachy thesis about everything that is wrong with the world and how earthships will fix it. Mr. Reynolds writes in a folksy vernacular that I personally find very irritating. If ya gotta charge thirty bucks for a book, at least ya can use darn good grammar and make it easy on the folks reading yer book. Also, his system is very complicated, though he will make it easy on you by selling you his plans and filters etc, available for thousands of dollars on his website. I have no objection to a man making a living, but it would be nice if he also offered simpler solutions for those of us who cannot afford his pre-made systems. He goes all over the world helping impoverished people build earthships, and presumably those do not have the expensive systems in them.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In one drop of water are found all the secrets of the oceans -- Khalil Gibran, March 31, 2009

By 

Jack Gurney (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Water From The Sky (Paperback)

Having lived through recent drought years in California and Texas, and now living in a sub-division that uses a communal well fed by a spring, I've become very sensitive to water quantity and quality. This book is the best I've found offering both a broad perspective on water issues as well as methods to conserve it.

Since recently adding rainbarrels to our existing gutter system, we've found that even small rainstorms that leave a 1/4" reading in the gauge fill our 55 gallon barrels to overflowing.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Individual watermanagement, November 11, 2010

By 

Gertjan Alink (Ede, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Water From The Sky (Paperback)

This book helped me in making the decision to start planning a house in the Dominican Republic based on the principles of an earthship. The harvesting and storage of sufficient rainwater and the use of botanical cells to clean the greywater ( from bathing, washing and the kitchen ) to make it suitable for flushing the toilets and the blackwater ( from the septic tank ) to make it suitable for irrigation purposes. The harvested water is used in such a way that you don't need another watersource. The only limitation is the annual precipitation combined with the watercatching roof surface. In these botanical cells you can grow, for starters, plants like bananas, lime and lemons, aloe vera, grapes and avocados. The book describes all of the principles and most of the technical details. But to really draw up construction plans and to execute the actual construction on site you will need sufficient engineering skills or hire an expert. The illustrations are clear enough but I expected more uniformity and a clear architectural signature. The recycled paper is not a problem since the whole idea behind earthships is to live in harmony with our earth. What is a problem is the odd shape of the book, it doesn't fit well on my bookshelf....