How to Read Water
Clues, Signs & Patterns from Puddles to the Sea
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
'This study of the behaviour of rivers, lakes and seas brims over with information and enthusiasm... His observational skills can be breathtaking... Gooley's infectious delight in knowledge translates into a gleeful hoarding of words.' The Sunday Times
A must-have book for walkers, sailors, swimmers, anglers and everyone interested in the natural world, in How To Read Water, Natural Navigator Tristan Gooley shares knowledge, skills, tips and useful observations to help you enjoy the landscape around you.
Includes over 700 clues, signs and patterns.
You'll learn how to:
Interpret ponds like a Polynesian
Spot dangerous water in the pitch black with the help of a clock face
Read the sea like a Viking
Forecast the weather from waves
Find your way with puddles
Decipher wave patterns on beaches
Decode the colour of water
From wild swimming in Sussex to wayfinding off Oman, via the icy mysteries of the Arctic, Tristan Gooley draws on his own pioneering journeys to reveal the secrets of ponds, puddles, rivers, oceans and more to show us all the skills we need to read the water around us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this enthusiastic, if esoteric, volume, Gooley (The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs), a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Institute of Navigation, diagnoses humans with a lack of fascination with water and sets out to rectify this situation. He examines water in its various liquid forms, pointing readers toward the "physical clues, signs, and patterns to look for in water, whether you are standing by a puddle or gazing out across miles of ocean." For example, Gooley identifies various types of puddles including low-point, tracker, and navigator puddles and reveals the reasons behind the ways they form, such as the ground beneath them, or the local flora and fauna. Similarly, he explains the differences among ripples, waves, and swells in larger bodies of water. Readers should be prepared for the occasional technical discussion, as when Gooley gives a rundown of the individual layers of water in a lake epilimnion, thermocline, hypolimnion and outlines an experiment readers can do at home to further explore them. The minutiae may turn off some readers, but avid and budding outdoorspeople will appreciate Gooley's breadth of knowledge and accessible approach to his subject.
