Pipe Dreams

Mostly interesting and well -presented but could have used some tightening up. (There is a tendency among non-fiction writers to include as much of the research they've done as possible, which can clutter up the narrative with unnecessary, if you'll pardon the expression, shit.)

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.

I would not have predicted that a boredom read on toilets would turn my world upside down, but here we are.