User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
You know I never gave much thoughts to toilets. They were just another every day convenience that I took for granted.
Until in 2019 when I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. As a long distance runner, I suddenly was hyper aware of where bathrooms existed on my running route just in case. And then the pandemic hit and suddenly, there were no accessible bathrooms. Like anywhere.
So this book was actually very fascinating as it basically tells you everything you want to know about toilets and a lot of things you never thought you wanted to know, but are quite interesting to learn about. From the public health aspects to the psychology of their use to the engineering to the environment (and of course, the political), the author captures it all. She has a great voice and combines education interwoven with anecdotes and best of all her own, often witty, personal interjections.
I am not a person who really spends a lot of time agonizing about environmental issues, but if you are such a person, I would characterize this book as a MUST. But for the rest of you, who just have curiosity about the world and how it works . . .you'll find Pipe Dreams to be educational, engaging, and even entertaining.
Rating: really liked it
I can't get this shit out of my head.
Rating: really liked it
This was a surprisingly interesting and eye opening book! Cutting edge science from places as diverse as the Netherlands, Indonesia and Quincy, MA examining the issue of human waste: how to manage it, how to stop using drinking-quality water to sweep it away, and the revolutionary uses to which that waste might be put!
I love the nod science journalist Wald gives to my favorite (Australian) toilet paper company, "Who Gives a Crap," which is famously devoted to both sustainability and cheeky humor. I love the research she cites (often from the Dutch, extraordinary engineers that they are) exploring composting systems and other alternatives to expensive underground piping. She shares research about better ways to manage what we do, plus ways of re-using human waste, even as bio-fuel or a source of heat energy.
Wald also notes that while toilets are in one sense a great equalizer ("everybody poops, after all"), they are also a metric for inequality in any society. While billions of people worldwide still don't have a single adequate toilet . . . the percentage of newly built single-family homes in the U.S. with THREE or more toilets rose from 19 to 62% between 1973 and 2019." That's a revealing look at power relations isn't it? The need for toilets may be universal, but their availability and distribution provides an everyday lesson in who matters.
Rating: really liked it
Thought Provoking and Informative. I consider myself a well read guy, a guy that has thought through a lot of problems and who generally knows a lot about a lot. Admittedly, I did *not* know much about toilets and related plumbing, though I had read bits and pieces in other books. (Such as a more in-depth look at John Snow and his work during the 19th century London cholera outbreak in Dierdre Mask's The Address Book.) But I had never read up on the general history of toilets - apparently because there are scant details about historical toileting beyond the last couple of hundred years or so - much less the bleeding edge issues and technologies of this field. And that is exactly what Wald provides here, a look at everything from the history to almost to-the-day bleeding edge issues, including the Great Toilet Paper Outage of 2020 during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Very well written and mostly reasonably documented (about 15% or so is bibliography), this truly is a fascinating read. Very much recommended.
Rating: really liked it
If you, like me, find yourself thinking, "Man, it's been a while since Mary Roach published a book," then this is the book for you! Like Mary Roach, Ms. Wald finds the sweet spot between informative science and humor. And she adds an additional layer of current affairs and social issues. Because, much like death and taxes--as the old saying goes--everyone poops.
If you are of an especially delicate nature, easily offended or grossed out, you may want to pass. But for the rest of us, you may be surprised how interesting and wide-reaching the subject matter is. The topic will have relevance as immediate as your own health, body, city, and home, to social justice across the globe.
I doubt I'd have given this book a second glance, had I not read my friend Anita's review singing it's praises. Thanks, Anita. I owe you one!
Rating: really liked it
This looks like it took me forever to read, but really I just took looong breaks between reading this
to read other things that were more time sensitive. I picked this up because I read just a short chapter in a book years ago that convinced me that the need for good sanitation (in other words toilets) was actually a more pressing need in most of the world than the need for water, in part because improving the sanitation would immediately help with the water situation. This book expands upon that topic and even makes a pretty good argument that sanitation in the wealthier regions of the globe is just as much in need of a overhaul. This is also a fascinating and fun book to read.
Rating: really liked it
Somehow, the subject was given a clinical enough treatment that I was able to eat and read the book simultaneously without being too affected. A little disorganized due to lots of brief anecdotes about a technology or phenomenon, but not really the author’s fault. Because there were so many discrete chunks, not all were memorable but all were very interesting while I was reading them. It was a perfect blend of science and sociology. I was heartened to see that innovations are being made and tested in literally every part of the world (maybe even your hometown), from major western cities to third world country towns to the remote scientific research part of Alaska.
Rating: really liked it
Really good book with an underwhelming title and subtitle. In a macro sense it's about social justice and natural science. The social justice portions appear throughout and are generally very thoughtful and thought provoking. Overall they're very good and mesh well with the rest of the material.
Wald gets off to a bit of a slow and awkward start largely due to the obligation of discussing an inherently difficult subject: toilets and bodily functions. It impacts every living being but that doesn't mean it's an easy theme to broach. And here Wald struggled as much as anyone else.
Ostensibly this is a book about toilets and she begins with some weak obligatory bathroom humor and some meandering talk about different types of facilities. Fortunately she's an excellent natural science writer and she covers a very wide range of topics ranging from the items you'd expect to environmental impacts. Drinking water, gray water, fertilizer, sewers, septic systems, energy, disease, disease surveillance, innovation. Lots of interesting topics written in an accessible, informative and interesting style. Recommended for all readers.
The highlights are public and a good representation of the book.
Rating: really liked it
I definitely learned a lot from this book - about sewers, water conservation, waste management and recycling - but my main challenge was trying to follow the organization. It may be that the overarching scheme is less evident from an audiobook, but I thought it jumped around topics a lot and would then later return to a previous topic, and I wish the related stories had been together (e.g. this is the section on toilet innovations, this is the section on alternatives to pit toilets...). I did like that it had a list of action items...but then there were still two whole sections after that, which threw me for a loop. So it's good for learning about completely new ideas, but maybe just one little section at a time.
Rating: really liked it
This is truly a book for the stronghearted. . . .sh*t is thoroughly discussed throughout. If you don't mind getting your bookspace filled with the lively consideration of this very important topic and product, then lay on, Macduff, I've got my shield handy.
The topic of the book is right there in the title and on the cover, and the author flatly states that this was not the book she ever thought she'd write. However, having been on the global health beat journalistically, she'd been to a number of countries observing and testing (a la "when in Rome") the many ways our ubiquitous need to rid ourselves of used fuel every day in every country, in all parts of the world, regardless of politics, creed, religion or culture - finding herself gaining an odd expertise and perspective that is not afforded everyone. Hence, her sharing this wisdom - and it is just that - wisdom. We need to listen, learn and make changes. Or we will p**p ourselves out of existence!
I'm glad she wrote the book, and I hope folks who know what they are doing in that industry start to listen. . .
I must admit, I had to stop now and again, and found I could not listen to this book in the kitchen, after meals or if I had a sense of urgency myself. Other than that, I was able to make it through. Funnily, enough, it was interesting and has remained in my thoughts far longer than I expected it would.
Rating: really liked it
I learned a lot with this one, a lot of things I wish I didn't know - especially when it comes to how common it is to have sewage just out in nature. We've just been pushing our luck as a species because we probably should have died out thousands of years ago, yet here we are wasting water and polluting daily.
I would have liked more on homelessness and lack of toilets, in places like San Francisco it's very noticeable that public toilets are for "paying customers" only - if you can find one at all. Also would like some insight on people with disabilities and toilet usage and modifications.
Overall I recommend. There are a lot of people out there doing good work and/or what they can with what they're given. We need more government involvement. I hope things change and quick.
Rating: really liked it
This is exactly the kind of nonfiction I like to read. Narrative, humorous micro history.
I don't think you have to have a strong stomach to read this, even given the topic lol
It did help me realign my perspective of thinking of a toilet as "flush and forget".
Would recommend.
Rating: really liked it
Flush with wicked puns and information on the history of toilets to looking to the future for more sustainable toilet methods, this is one intriguing book! Science journalist Chelsea Wald knows her...stuff. She walks us through vocabulary origins (loo, water closet, necessary house...), sanitation, hygiene, inventions and experiments in a frank way and doesn't waste words. She even describes the volume difference between omnivores and vegetarians.
Wald describes ancient Roman pit latrines...whenever in ancient cities I like to visit the underground including sewers if possible as well as above ground latrines. Riveting! She explains night soil workers' grim jobs and those who in modern times still collect and dump using large pails. Plus we learn that animals including bees and racoons defecate away from their homes. And then there's the mysterious German toilet...on my first trip to Germany I wondered at it but then realized the brilliance behind it. Wald goes on to explain the benefits of squat toilets (I just can't get the hang of them!) and urinals and the leading science of today, She even details the first toilet paper inventors. So many memorable bits of information and stories here...one of my favourites is of the octopus. Not only that but loads more including urine potential and its past uses.
As humans we are curious beings and this book will satiate your appetite. This is the ultimate scoop on poop so don't be shy, just pit in and get ready to have your eyes opened. Much of the book is scientific and based on science but it does not read like a textbook, not at all.
My sincere thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this enthralling eARC!
Rating: really liked it
We rarely think about toilet, but Chelsea Wald makes a compelling argument to why we need to think more about them. You'll never view sanitation, or water, the same way.
Rating: really liked it
I really took toilet/waste processing technology for granted until I read this book, and now I notice interesting things in different restrooms all the time. Roach strikes a good balance in explaining how two somewhat contradictory things can be true: 1. toilets have radically improved human health by reducing our exposure to various toxins and waste and 2. toilet technology has been stagnant for a very long time, and we need to reinvent the waste management process to be more globally accessible, environmentally friendly, and informative about community health.
The writing is entertaining, easy to read, and informative — I couldn’t believe how much I learned from reading this relatively short book. Some interesting notes below, hidden under spoilers in case anyone is grossed out:
- Since people in different countries have different diets, there are physical and chemical differences that affect how their waste is optimally processed
- A big challenge in designing waste processing technology is finding realistic test material representative of what gets flushed down the toilet — there are entire research projects on generating synthetic sludge for this purpose
- The flush mechanism flings pathogens throughout the room, so it’s good to keep the lid down when you flush
- Excreted antibiotics can make their way into wastewater systems, contributing to antibiotic resistance
- Analyzing wastewater can be useful for monitoring community drug use — especially because you can distinguish during consumption from unused drugs which are just being disposed of
- There is an interesting idea that poorer countries could “leapfrog” over the imperfect sewer technology currently in developed nations to better ones (eg decentralized waste processing facilities, which require less waste transport), similar to the way that many third world countries skipped landlines and went straight to mobile phones
- A big open problem is how to separate urine from poop in the toilet bowl — doing so would make it easier to streamline processing of each, but it’s really hard because people urinate differently. It’s particularly hard for women to control where their urine goes
- People dump all sorts of stuff (e.g., oil and grease) down drains and toilets which coalesce into “fatbergs” which can block sewer systems. Flushable wipes, even though they are labeled flushable, seem to contribute a lot to this
- Researchers have worked on creating fragrances specifically designed to neutralize the smelly molecules in human waste to make bathrooms more desirable to use, in areas where they weren’t previously adopted by locals
- Public toilets used to be pretty common, but people had to pay for stalls (as opposed to urinals), which was argued the increase inequality between men and women. The result is that most public toilets disappeared entirely. Some cities are investing in systems where the government pays a stipend to businesses which offer for their toilets to be public
