The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters,   ISBN:9780805090833

Customer Rating: 

I enjoyed reading this well written and informative book. The author did an excellent job of describing the environmental and health consequences of public sanitation.

Customer Rating: 

Mostly a "one note" approach. Mildly interesting for a chapter or two, then there's little else. An important topic that deserved more than this sort of light journalistic approach.

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THE BIG NECESSITY: THE UNMENTIONABLE WORLD OF HUMAN WASTE AND WHY IT MATTERS delve into the history and consideration of human waste products and the growing stress on sewage systems that is creating what will become a crisis. Rose George examines the sewers and systems of London, Paris and New York to consider where their issues are and how they may fail, pairing a history with a fine social observation of waste products and management. Any general lending library and many a health collection needs this assessment.

Customer Rating: 

A friend enthusiastically recommended this book, and so I gave it a try. It was engaging and funny, but also of utmost importance to anyone who cares about human dignity. It's the last thing I'd ever have expected myself to read (I was even a bit embarrassed to be seen reading it in public!), but found it truly compelling.

Customer Rating: 

At times, Ms George makes a person rock back on their heels. I found the information fascinating. I found her interjections about her own 'issues' concerning 'toileting' to be repetitive and non contributory to the discussion. It would appear that she and her publisher felt the need to introduce most chapters with personal anecdotes, most of which were tiresome at best.

Despite the annoying personal information, this book is definitely worth reading from a 'general global knowledge' perspective. By the end, I had decided that people in 'developed' countries should not be able to so easily flush away their faeces. What a waste, literally. Perhaps people need to deal with what they produce, compost it, sell it, use it for their tomatoes, whatever. Our of sight, out of mind is mindlessness.

This is not to say that those who defecate into plastic bags which they then toss onto roofs are anymore mindful.

Waste generated by human beings, directly or indirectly, is a legitimate concern. Ms George does confuse me though: is she trying to inform or is she trying to entertain? There is a subtlety involved here that transcends the smell of poop. A little less 'yuk' and a bit more information would have made this book seriously readable and readably serious.