PIPE DREAMS

When my brother would do the rounds giving talks to bright-eyed kids working on their startups, his presentations would often include as an example the challenge of building a better toilet for astronauts.

It’s an attention-catching example, because we don’t often think about toilets and yet here’s a use case where they do not exactly work (because gravity). To overcome the technical challenges would take a lot of effort and imagination, and yet one can surmise that once properly addressed the solution will have a high impact.

I was thinking about this a lot as I was reading Chelsea Wald’s book Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet.

It’s a little strange to find an author so enthusiastic about the subjects of toilets and sewage, and thus it feels odd to pick up a book on those very topics. Yet after starting with the book it doesn’t take long to appreciate that these are topics that deserve far more attention than they currently receive from the public at large. Reading Pipe Dreams one acquires a new perspective about the technical marvel that toilets are, how genuinely remarkable modern sewage is, and how both are central to the health and well being of people around the globe—more so after realizing that a significant proportion of the world’s population still lacks access to clean toilets!

With good humor, crisp reportage, and academic rigor, Wald has written an extraordinary book about arguably one of the most taken for granted modern conveniences. Indeed, anyone reading Pipe Dreams will never look at toilets the same way again.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for my NetGalley ARC of Pipe Dreams!

Genre: science
Rating: 🚽🚽🚽🚽.5

We don't like to think too much about toilets, but Chelsea Wald is here to change all of that. Toilets are a flawed miracle - they reduce disease by flushing away our waste. BUT they do so at the cost of an unfathomable amount of water and enormous treatment costs so that the waste can be safely released. And let's not forget sewers - US sewer systems got a D+ grade for infrastructure, and this problem is not going away.

Putting aside the problems in developed countries - toilets are not universally available in all countries; some countries still practice outdoor defecation. Bill Gates has funded efforts to create a better toilet - less water usage, more adaptable to countries across the world - where are we in this quest? Wald takes us on a journey through toilet and sanitation science, covering these topics and much, much more.

I am a health and science nerd, so I loved this book. Wald's writing reminds me a lot of that of Mary Roach (of Gulp, Stiff, and Bonk fame) - she takes a topic we don't think much about and makes it fascinating, showing how it connects to politics, economics, and culture.

One topic I appreciated was that of public toilets. The lack of public toilets causes many problems in the US - for people who are homeless, or have stomach conditions, just to name a few reasons. COVID made me realize how much public facilities matter - how can you get out of the house without available restrooms? Toilets in restaurants and shops are not a solution - just think back to the racist incidents of Black people not given access to Starbucks bathrooms.

Wald makes a compelling case for more investment in better and more eco-friendly toilets and waste processing systems. If you're looking for popular science that will make you think, I highly recommend this book!

Review published to Instagram and Goodreads on 4/6/21.

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.

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!

An odd subject, for sure, but a well done book! Who doesn't want to learn about toilets? I would recommend this to anyone looking for some compelling non-fiction for any time of the year :)

If you’ve ever wanted the poop on sanitation and we’re curious about what challenges are being faced currently - this book is for you! If you were curious about how much one could write on the subject and how in depth it would be, like yours truly, this book is also for you!

Just note that it’s very dense with information. That’s not bad at all, but I see that it’s being marketed as “similar to Roach’s books” and based on reading both, I found this one to have a lot more information in each paragraph. They are similar in witty section headlines, however.

I loved how the author tackled why the reader should give a crap about the topic and listed some ways to make more environmentally friendly choices. I also was pleased to see the inclusion of 2020’s pandemic and TP shortage received a mention, though it was very strange to read it in past tense as it is still going on when I read this.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Thanks so much to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

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.