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Dec 30, 2008

John rated it:

If you glance over my previously listed books, you'll have noted that I'm on a "end of civilization as we know it" reading jag, and this book fits right into the series. In fact, in many ways it's the best of the lot. Excreting is something we all do and almost none of us like to think about it, let alone talk about it, let alone read a whole book on the subject. But, because of this, our ignorance is immense. Who would have guessed, for example, that the world divides between those wh More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2010

Maureen rated it:

Yes, I am a science geek. This is terrific read. When I was a kid, I would read "historical" books, like Little House on the Prairie, and I would be thinking, hmm, where did they go to the bathroom? What did they use for toilet paper? Dad said they used leaves and I said no way! How could that work?

I guess I was destined to become interested in microbiology and tolerant and compassionate enough to work with people's poo samples and try to figure out what was making them More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2009

Brooks rated it:

The book starts as a travelogue on different sewer systems and then moves toward more of a Polzin type book on the importances of sanitation systems. As an engineering who watches too much Modern Marvels, but of this was not interesting. It never went too detailed, which is more my interest. So, what are the different options for human waste sanitation? Open defecation and the helicopter toilet (shit in a bag and throw into the street). This is a big problem. A lot of poor people actu More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2008

Emily rated it:

I just thought of a weird fact about myself. When I was little, instead of using the word ‘poop’ we called it ‘rocks’, as in “Mommy, I need to make rocks.” When I grew up I studied what in college? Geology.

I think this book should have been called, “The History of Toilets and Sewers Around the World” or “Poop: How To Get Rid of a Whole Lot of It’. It really wasn’t so much about human waste itself, but how it makes people sick and what the world does with it. FYI: India crea More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2009

Julie rated it:

With passion, humor and integrity, Rose George makes a rock-solid case for sanitation as the world's most critical development issue. Without easy access to safe and effective sanitation, communities cannot provide clean drinking water or food free from contamination or lower the risk of life-threatening diseases. Without access to sanitation, women are chained to the Sisyphian drudgery of seeking out and carrying water, girls are too shamed to attend school once they begin menstruating, village More...

12 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

John rated it:

Did you know that out of 6 billion humans, 2.6 billion have no bathroom, toilet, latrine or other place to tidily and privately relieve themselves? They use a vacant lot, walk a way down a railroad track, or "go" in a plastic bag that they then toss on a roof or over a fence.
"The Big Necessity" is full of such interesting facts.
But more than that, the book is an important overview of the current state of sanitation in the world, be it the robotic toilets of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Kathy rated it:

This was a very thought-provoking book to read at a time when the media are full of reports about cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe. Human waste disposal from the developed world to the undeveloped.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Richard rated it:

A lot of other folks have reviewed this book, so I'll try to keep mine brief. It's an interesting book on a vital topic that usually no one talks or thinks about. In a somewhat haphazard manner, the author presents a lot of the issues regarding the handling/disposal of human waste, and takes us on a tour of efforts [mostly] in third world countries to confront the problem. There is a lot of good information here, and I recommend the book.

On the downside, the book reads like a seri More...

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Dec 23, 2011

Barney rated it:

This book is about shit. Rose George quotes a study wherein 7 categories of euphemism are used for that word, and points out that sanitation is a taboo subject in no small part because it concerns shit. (11) I don't know anything about sanitation. I push the lever and away the shit goes. I don't know where it goes, nor do I care how it gets there. So what if the readers of the British Journal of Medicine voted sanitation as the most important single development in public health over the last 20 More...

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Dec 05, 2011

Patricia rated it:

You’ve never taken a sewer tour of London or New York City, have you? Or stopped to chat with anyone in the Hindu caste of the pristine “broken people” as they empty India’s latrines and clean up feces — despite Mahatma Gandhi’s attempts to get everyone to haul their own? Or contemplated a nice dinner salad as you watched Chinese excrement being sprayed on fields of cabbages? Or marched in a protest advocating women’s urinals — without doors, of course — privacy being all in your mind?
More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Richard rated it:

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Book Report: The crapper. The toilet. The convenience. The Porcelain God. Of them all, it's the last one that's the most correct. We should worship the waste-disposal vessel in every American home, because it and the infrastructure that supports it, invisibly to the end users, make modern life as clean, comfortable, and healthy as possible.

Rose George has done us all the service of surveying the world's various systems and non-systems of waste dispos More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

When I tell people that I read this book and loved it they cringe or think I'm strange. And that is why EVERYONE needs to read this book. We don't like to talk about poop and we don't like to think about poop. We are, in other words, a fecalphobic culture, and that has profound implications for millions of people around the world. Good sanitation is absolutely vital and its impact is often overlooked. Sanitation doesn't get brought up in most history books but it has played an absolutely vital r More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Meredith rated it:

OK--this isn't something that most of us set out to read about--the past, present, and future of poop. However, I'd say that I found 3/4 of this book very intriguing. The author traveled all over the world researching the topic and discusses how various cultures deal with "bathroom issues." I will say that after reading this book, I have a new appreciation of my flushing toilet, but now I want a Japanese model. They're amazing. Well, you know the Japanese--they're always a few steps ah More...

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May 21, 2010

Xing rated it:

Rivetingly researched. Takes us from slums of Mumbai to toilet-manufacturing plants in Japan, and reveals that despite apparently huge cultural and economic differences, people readily adapt in order to do what our body dictates using the facilities available- ejection of waste is a fundamental necessity, regardless of how many smoke screens, walls, and doors we errect (though I'm awed over by the concept of played-back flushing sounds).
Having visited the Chinese countryside and used publ More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 05, 2010

Dave rated it:

Very good book on an issue that isn't talked about nearly enough for how big a problem it is to human health. We've had waste disposal pretty well figured out for a century in the US and Europe (though we could do a whole lot to use waste as compost and fertilizer rather than using so much potable drinking water to flush it down our tubes), but in developing countries, lack of sanitation and the disease it lets circulate is killing people--mostly children--by the scores.

Proper san More...

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Feb 12, 2009

Leigh rated it:

A fascinating look into how the world manages human waste. Sewer systems in cities such as London and New York, third world farmers, astronauts in space..

Some of the stories are really alarming. A lack of basic sanitation (toilets) in third world countries leads to incredible infestations of dystentery, worms, you name it. In western countries, disposal of so called "bio-solids" is terrifying. You might think that water treatments plants separate water from human waste but More...

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Oct 10, 2009

Emily rated it:

Every once in a while you read a book that makes you think about something you take for granted in a completely different light. It generally becomes clear to me that I'm reading one of those books when I'm stopping frequently to say, "Oh, wow! Honey, listen to this!" and then assailing my husband with amazing facts about my current topic of interest. I started quoting Ms. George's book at my husband on page 2 and, according to my husband, didn't stop until I was done with the book. More...

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Dec 17, 2008

Vicky rated it:

This book is fascinating, although those with more delicate stomachs might want to skip it. George doesn't just write about the history of turditude; her real concern is for clean water (which, essentially, means clean toilets) for the world's population. You may want to go home and embrace your porcelain throne in gratitude after reading this book full of fecally crusted bushes and stinking holes in the ground. You'll definitely start keeping the lid down after you flush.

George quot More...

1 comment like

Dec 20, 2008

Tripp rated it:

While mostly a laughing or smirking matter in the developed world, shit is a serious concern for many in the developed world. A sixth of the world population lacks what is called clean water, which is a nice way of saying that their water is polluted by human waste. This pollution kills millions of children each year from diarrhea alone. Rose George explores the world of shit management, or as it is usually called, sanitation in the excellent Big Necessity.

Rose is funny, she has a wa More...

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Dec 31, 2009

Tyler rated it:

Synopsis: Rose George explores human excrement and everything relating to it. She explores how human waste is discarded in the United States, Japan, India, China, South Africa, Tanzania, and other places. Incredibly, 2.6 billion people do not have access to sanitation and those who do usually take it for granted. The book explores everything from high-end bidets in Japan, flush toilets in the United States and various types of latrines in much of the rest of the world. It's something that we all More...

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Aug 03, 2010

Sara rated it:

A fascinating book, recommended by Valerie. Not the most pleasant read but at times, very funny. She's an excellent writer and traveled the world in research for this book. We hardly think about toilets in this country, but much of the world either have none or use latrines of various types. And it's only been fairly recently that waste is treated rather than being dumped into lakes and oceans--and still is basically everywhere when there are big rainstorms that flood the systems. She serio More...

2 comments like

Jul 30, 2009

Andrea rated it:

As a typical Westerner ( I think) I had never thought about dirty latrines, or even "bush squatting" as anything more than a nasty inconvenience of traveling in developing countries. But George points out the great hazards to human health posed by ...poop. While the tone is often humorous, the subject is serious, and George provides an easy to read, interesting overview of the problems of human waste and safe drinking water. She visits India, China and Tanzania, among other places, t More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Paul rated it:

Anyone who knows me understands why this jumped off the shelf at me. Even at that it really is interesting to better understand just what a huge role crap plays in our lives. And how um...poorly we still dispose of it.

In the end...just a so so book. It was nice that it covers crap (literally) world wide, but I'd have been happier if she picked one spot and stuck with it.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 01, 2008

Kelly rated it:

This book was extremely enlightening - I cannot recommend it enough. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be versed in sustainability, which is being increasingly important in modern society.

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Snail in Danger (Sid) rated it:

More like 2.5.

There is interesting info here, but I think the author perhaps tried to do too much in one book. The combination of infrastructure-related and cultural info was not handled as well as it could have been.

I took a women's studies class once, and we talked about the bathroom problem. The gist of it is that women need to take more time in the bathroom - even if they don't go in there to reapply their makeup or whatever. It takes women longer to disarrange and More...

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Sep 02, 2010

Kate rated it:

I. Loved. This. Book. I know it doesn't sound super awesome to most people, but I've been interested in sanitation infrastructure since I was doing research on diarrheal diseases at PSI the summer after graduation. More children die each year from diarrhea than from AIDS, from malaria, or from tuberculosis. When people are sick all the time, they're a lot less productive and they have to spend a lot of money on medicine. But my favorite thing about this book was that it emphasized that the proje More...

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Sep 29, 2011

Jamie rated it:

A very interesting book.

"2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. I don't mean that they have no toilet in their house and must use a public one with queues and fees. Or that they have an outhouse, or a rickety shack that empties into a filthy drain or pigsty. All that counts as sanitation, though not a safe variety. The people who have those are the fortunate ones. Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket or box. Nothing. Instead, they defecate by train More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Will rated it:

Or as we call it, “The Poo Book.”

If you are expecting a Mary Roach approach, forget it. While there are more than a couple of yucks in George’s book, they provide spice and not substance. This is a sober examination of a crucial public health matter. George offers plenty of supportive stats, without letting them get in the way of telling her story. How do societies in diverse cultures cope with human waste? George looks at methodologies and social standards in the USA, Japan, India, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2009

Emilee rated it:

This book was a fast and funny read both despite and because of the topic: s**t. Each chapter was devoted to a different take on a related issue internationally and in the US. I read it after learning that the Gates Foundation is promoting this book as part of an initiative to raise awareness and call attention to sanitation: it's not just about water and one of the most important determinants of our health. Of course, I found it interesting from a public health perspective, but I don't think More...

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Nov 24, 2009

Jen rated it:

This book made me very appreciative of modern sanitation. Access to a toilet is easy to take for granted, but the author makes it clear that it is a matter of life and death. It is unbelievable that millions of people still have no means of waste disposal and the human cost in death and disease is heartbreaking. The book also points out that "advanced" societies also haven't found a safe and efficient method for cleaning and storing waste and the accounts of modern sanitation plants pu More...

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