Water Distribution Modeling for Dummies

This is the book that started it all. That's right this was the inspiration for the classic film Chinatown. Robert Towne used to be a civil engineer specializing in municipal water systems. The guy thought this was the single most interesting book he ever read. Big surprise, most everyone else didn't share his enthusiasm. Frustrated by all his failed attempts to generate enthusiasm for the subject, he decided to jazz the subject up a little bit.

A history of how Los Angeles, a young, sprawling metropolis in the middle of the desert stayed hydrated was born. Still unable to attract much interest, he continued to re-write the book. Emphasizing the mob's role in bringing water to the city helped a little, but draft after draft failed to get anyone excited about the intricacies of the systems that kept cities and towns everywhere alive.

Finally, completely fed up with the apathy of his friends and editors, he fell right off the deep end and wrote a screenplay about crime, fear, incest, and (of course) water. His swan dive won him an Oscar.