NONFICTION - Oct. 4, 1992

TAKING THE WATERS by Alev Lytle Croutier (Abbeville Press: $25; 135 pp.). Now this is the kind of research project worth spending your time on. Author, Guggenheim fellow and screenwriter (“Tell Me a Riddle”), Croutier has undertaken a survey of spas. Yes, she has to spend some time in dry dock--at libraries, studying prehistoric sacred waters and ancient Roman baths--but then she gets to the field research. And what a field it is. Spas in Europe, Asia and the United States, enforced stays at Rancho La Puerta, The Golden Door, and other watering holes around the world. The price tags in the “Guide to the World’s Most Famous Spas” section probably would amount to a hefty down payment on a house, but then, the target audience for this tome clearly is the select group that has not yet heard about the ‘90s being the decade for paring back. Croutier is a (may I say this?) very fluid writer, suitably mystical and properly savvy about her audience. As the $35 price suggests, this is an opulent book, filled with exquisite illustrations--fine art reproductions, travel posters and photographs.