Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle over America's Drinking Water - Softcover

"An engaging investigation of an unexpectedly murky substance...After you read it you will sip warily from your water bottle."--"New York Times Book Review "Bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in the country. But what's the cost of all this water--for us and for the environment? In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Royte does for water what Michael Pollan did for food: She examines the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that surround it on its journey from distant aquifers to our supermarkets and homes. She looks at the various sources of drinking water (including the embattled Maine town that Poland Spring exports from), the chemicals we dump into it to make it potable, and the real differences between tap and bottled. "Bottlemania "is the story of one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century--and one of the most troubling issues facing our environment today. With a new afterword on the developing issues in clean water around the world.

""Bottlemania "is eye-opening and informative; you will never look at water - either "designer" or tap - in quite the same way. Royte demonstrates how everything is, in the end, truly connected.""--Elizabeth Kolbert"

"""Royte deserves credit for her tenacity and well-balanced approach....Lively investigative journalism."--"Kirkus Reviews"

"An easy-to-swallow survey.... after you read it you will sip warily from your water bottle (whether purchased or tap, plastic or not), as freaked out by your own role in today's insidious water wars as by Royte's recommended ecologically responsible drink: "Toilet to tap."" "--"Lisa Margonelli," New York Times Book Review"

"Light and easy-to-read narrative...lots of interesting factoids..." "--Providence Journal-Bulletin"

"At a time of climate change and increasing risks to global water supplies, we must change the way we think about this crucial resource and begin treating it as a public good to be preserved, rather than the equivalent of an oil deposit or timber forest, ripe for corporate exploitation." "--New Scientist"

"An intriguing look at a totem of the ultramodern, perhaps selfish, way we live now" "--Time Out Chicago"

"a well-balanced, interesting and instructive book about our fundamental human need to drink water" "--Chicago Sun Times"

"Seamlessly blending scientific explanation and social observation" "--LA Times Book Review"

"Bottlemania makes the case that it's not in our interests to let private multinational corporations float their boats on our nation's water. That's not democracy, it's dam-ocracy, and it could damn us all if we let their unquenchable thirst for profit take precedence over our right to clean, safe, free drinking water." --Kerry Trueman, "Huffingtonpost.com"

"An intrepid, intelligent analysis of Americans' raging thirst for bottled water." "--BookPage"

"An essential, if somewhat disturbing, read." "--VeryShortList.com"

"A breezy, accessible history of water through the ages....a good account of the tensions in the little town ofFryeburg, Maine." "--New York Post"

"A sharp indictment of the bottled-water industry" "--New York Observer"

"Informative" --Meghan O'Rourke, "Slate.com"

"Compelling and dynamic" "--Library Journal"

"Entertaining and eye-opening" "--Publishers Weekly"

"Bottlemania is eye-opening and informative; you will never look at water - either "designer" or tap - in quite the same way. Royte demonstrates how everything is, in the end, truly connected." --Elizabeth Kolbert

Royte deserves credit for her tenacity and well-balanced approach....Lively investigative journalism."" --Kirkus Reviews"

"Fantastic." - Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"

"Ingenious.... Amiably, without haranguing or hyperventilating, this veteran environmental writer has produced what could be, assuming enough people read it, one of the year's most influential books." - "Boston Globe"

"""An easy-to-swallow survey.... after you read it you will sip warily from your water bottle (whether purchased or tap, plastic or not), as freaked out by your own role in today's insidious water wars as by Royte's recommended ecologically responsible drink: "Toilet to tap."" "--"Lisa Margonelli," New York Times Book Review"

"Light and easy-to-read narrative...lots of interesting factoids..." "--Providence Journal-Bulletin"

"At a time of climate change and increasing risks to global water supplies, we must change the way we think about this crucial resource and begin treating it as a public good to be preserved, rather than the equivalent of an oil deposit or timber forest, ripe for corporate exploitation." "--New Scientist"

"An intriguing look at a totem of the ultramodern, perhaps selfish, way we live now" "--Time Out Chicago"

"a well-balanced, interesting and instructive book about our fundamental human need to drink water" "--Chicago Sun Times"

"Seamlessly blending scientific explanation and social observation" "--LA Times Book Review"

"Bottlemania makes the case that it's not in our interests to let private multinational corporations float their boats on our nation's water. That's not democracy, it's dam-ocracy, and it could damn us all if we let their unquenchable thirst for profit take precedence over our right to clean, safe, free drinking water." --Kerry Trueman, "Huffingtonpost.com"

"Anintrepid, intelligent analysis of Americans' raging thirst for bottled water." "--BookPage"

"An essential, if somewhat disturbing, read." "--VeryShortList.com"

"A breezy, accessible history of water through the ages....a good account of the tensions in the little town of Fryeburg, Maine." "--New York Post"

"A sharp indictment of the bottled-water industry" "--New York Observer"

"Informative" --Meghan O'Rourke, "Slate.com"

"Compelling and dynamic" "--Library Journal"

"Entertaining and eye-opening" "--Publishers Weekly"

"Bottlemania is eye-opening and informative; you will never look at water - either "designer" or tap - in quite the same way. Royte demonstrates how everything is, in the end, truly connected." --Elizabeth Kolbert

Royte deserves credit for her tenacity and well-balanced approach....Lively investigative journalism."" --Kirkus Reviews"