There are a number of key reasons provided in this book for not drinking bottled water, some of which follow:
1. the disposal of all the plastic bottles and the energy required to manufacture them in the first place harms the environment
2. the need to truck the bottles of water over long distances to deliver them to your local store also harms the environment
3. your health could be at risk from drinking bottled water as the industry is largely self-regulated and stored, bottled water can grow microorganisms
4. drinking bottled water can hurt local democracy and place a key essential to human life in private hands

Alarmed at the thought? Well the author then goes on to further alarm the reader with the message 'oh and tap water is full of nasties, even when it meets EPA standards. Filtering does little in the way of cleaning it up either'. Major erk!

Parts of this book were interesting but I really struggled to keep my interest alive after about 100 or so pages. The long-drawn-out sections on the situation in the town of Fryeburg with the reports from town meetings and the whole discussion of Mr Dearborn's well had me contemplating a skim read of the remainder of the book without actually reading it properly and considering the content as I had done up until that point.

The book wasn't terrible but one thing that continually annoyed me was that the author rarely seemed to back up her statistics and facts with any solid references which left me permanently wondering how she came about them - did she read them in an academic paper or just overhear someone mentioning them once at a dinner party? The bibliography provided seemed a little too made up of articles published in magazines, newspapers and on the Web. I would really like to have seen a bibliography based more on academic research papers in the field rather than what I felt was an over-reliance on journalistic sources. ( )

Enlightening yet discouraging to read. One is awed by the interesting research paths Royte relentlessly follows to track so many aspects of her subject. Her writing is compelling. I haven't touched a plastic water bottle since finishing the book. ( )

Well researched, as is usual for Royte. It sometimes bogged down when discussing the local politics in Maine and the characters embroiled in the controversy over Poland Springs. No more bottled water for me. ( )

Vital reading for anyone who needs water to survive, i.e., every person on this planet. Personally, I will do my absolute best to NEVER purchase bottled water again. ( )

A look at how bottled water has grown as an industry, and how its future could impact the future of the water we drink.