Sunday, April 10, 2016

Book Review: How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley

I can't remember not living close to water. I grew up by the little Nailbourne river, that flows and dries as the chalk hills fill and empty. I've sailed the Atlantic, learnt (and mostly forgotten) the sailing light codes and bathed in a natural hot spring in Greenland while watching icebergs glide by.

But I still learnt masses and masses from this brilliant book.

For anyone who has any connection with water - and that definitely includes all sailors and kayakers - this is a must-have book.

Learn how to navigate like a Polynesian in a pond, use the reflection of Jupiter to spot bats, discover the best beaches on the Scilly Isles, where to look for gold in a beach and much, much more - this book is packed with fascinating information.

Worth having on a boat for those "I wonder what?" moments or taken on a walk along the coastline to understand the topography of a beach, the differences between ripples, waves and swell, how to read sand ripples and avoid those deadly rip currents.

Sure to be a classic - strongly recommended.



Two other reviews here and here.

Full disclosure: Tristan is a good friend of mine and this book mentions events that happened while we were sailing together plus I got a review copy.

4 comments:

Tillerman said...

Looking forward to reading this book. But Amazon says it's not being released (in the US I assume) until August 23.

JP said...

If only you had relatives in the UK who could order it for you from Amazon UK!

Tillerman said...

There's an idea. I will be over there in the UK in May. I could order it from amazon.co.uk and get it delivered to one of my relatives whom I will be visiting!

Joe said...

You can order it from Book Depository in the UK. They ship worldwide.