St. Mark's Bookshop

“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.