This is, both in form and content, an odd little book . . . but a fascinating one. At barely 64 pages, each not much bigger than an index card, it probably contains fewer words than a modest magazine article. Yet, it is (well, my copy is, anyway) beautifully crafted: high quality paper, delicate pen-and-ink illustrations, bound in soft blue cloth, and stamped with silver for the title. There's even a slender, sewn-in bookmark of silver ribbon -- a whimsical touch, since it would be hard not to read the entire thing in one sitting. The content is just as offbeat, but just as satisfying. It pretends to be a guide to the etymology of words unique to the world of New England coastal marshes and the shallow-draft rowboats that ply them . . . and it is that (Stilgoe explains "skiff" and "skeg" and the difference between "shoal" and "spit," not to mention "guzzle" and "gutter"), but it is also more. Stilgoe notices things -- the way a rowboat moves in the tide, the way the waves look when a river meets the sea, the blindness of dictionaries to the nuances of maritime language -- and, in the process of his lessons in etymology, describes them in intriguing ways. Shallow Water Dictionary is also -- last, but far from least -- an elegant introduction to salt marshes for readers who've never seen one, and a delightful trip into the past for readers who (like me) grew up with them. ( )