Culinary Math Book

Terrific history and analysis of a contemporary phenomenon, bottled water. Gleick covers the development of public water delivery systems, the history of water borne diseases and the marketing of bottled water in a way I read as balanced and full of interesting talking points. My boyfriend wanted to know if it was like Fast Food Nation, and it's not written in such a humorous (and gross out) fashion.

I need a lot of water due to medication I'm on. I carry my own bottle to refill but still buy bottled water a few times a week. Gleick's writing about the history of public water fountains and the problems (even disasters) of places that have not installed them was particularly interesting. I really appreciate places that have public drinking fountains now (I'm sitting next to two at the library) and what a great alternative this could be to our obsession with bottled water. So even though I started out as a bit of a know it all, plastic bottles create waste and cost oil to ship etc., I definitely learned a lot from this book.