Chelsea Wald

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.… (mehr)

An abundance of fascinating information mixed with the particulars of sanitation, both modern and ancient.

I am glad I read this book if only for the one new fact I learned which is highly valuable.

IMO, the book lacked a clean focus. Was it about the history? Current technology? Interesting factoids?

Depends on which page I'm reading.

On the positive side, this is a book that needed to be written. All too often, these topics are taboo and undiscussed despite their profound effect on society.… (mehr)

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.… (mehr)