How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley

 Subtitled Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea, this is a fascinating guide to how to read and understand water in the landscape from Tristan Gooley, who is known as the Natural Navigator.

The book includes tips on how to find water by observing which plants are growing in the area, and the movement of animals and insects; tips on how to interpret how water moves in rivers or the sea and ideas that help the reader to observe signs in water, There are also a good number of practical experiments that you can carry out (often by observing how the liquid behaves in a cup of tea, which suits me given how many cups of tea I drink!) I was struck by how much of the content I already knew, but wasn't quite aware that I knew. 

In terms of content, there was probably too much of a focus on yachting for me, given that I'm not likely to take up yachting. My real issue with the book though is that much of it is very oddly written. I can enjoy a quirky style of writing, but there was quite a lot about Gooley's writing here that just struck me as very peculiar, especially in the first few chapters. 

Overall though, this is a very interesting book and well worth reading if you're interested in being able to interpret landscape. 

I bought this copy second-hand, and it looks as though a previous reader had dropped it into the bath, which is appropriate, perhaps. 

How to read Water by Tristan Gooley, published (2016) by Sceptre.