ergative's review
2.0
This was fundamentally disappointing, alas. The author writes for Atlas Obscura, and most of this book felt like a series of Atlas Obscura articles: interesting notes that never go much deeper than an internet blog post. I learned very little that I hadn't already known from reading the perpetual articles about fatbergs that come out every winter; the occasional New Yorker article about biofuel creation; and of course the hive mind wisdom that everyone responsible for maintaining their own home's plumbing already knows: 'flushable' wipes aren't flushable.
The focus was almost exclusively London sewers and various US-based municipalities, with the occasional historical commentary on historical sewer systems--mostly in England--and some descriptions of architecture of waste treatment plants that do not include sufficient photographs to actually illustrate the text.
This book gathers together all of those tidbits of information and puts them between the same covers, but if someone is actually interested enough in sewers to read a whole book on them, that person is likely to already know much of what is in this book, and get impatient and frustrated while looking for the rest of the content that isn't there.
NB: I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. Inasmuch as I can be sure of such things, I believe that this has not affected the content of my review.
The focus was almost exclusively London sewers and various US-based municipalities, with the occasional historical commentary on historical sewer systems--mostly in England--and some descriptions of architecture of waste treatment plants that do not include sufficient photographs to actually illustrate the text.
This book gathers together all of those tidbits of information and puts them between the same covers, but if someone is actually interested enough in sewers to read a whole book on them, that person is likely to already know much of what is in this book, and get impatient and frustrated while looking for the rest of the content that isn't there.
NB: I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. Inasmuch as I can be sure of such things, I believe that this has not affected the content of my review.
annarella's review
4.0
I never thought I would read a book about Sewers but I did and learned a lot about this type of infrastructure.
It's absolutely necessary but we never think about it unless there's a leakage or bad smell.
The author did an excellent job in writing a book entertaining and informative.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
It's absolutely necessary but we never think about it unless there's a leakage or bad smell.
The author did an excellent job in writing a book entertaining and informative.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
bookanonjeff's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
5.0
Fascinating Look At Mostly Current Status Of Sewer Systems. After having read Chelsea Wald's Pipe Dreams in 2021 about the history and future of toilets, this book seemed a natural progression in my learning on the topic - and at just 200 pages, it was a quick yet seemingly comprehensive look at the current status of the topic. That noted, this book *does* use London as its primary narrative example, though there are also discussions of other locations including Chicago, Cleveland, NYC, and the struggles of the developing world. There are also extensive discussions of fatbergs, wet wipes, and microplastics. (Basically... don't flush a wet wipe. It doesn't end well.) Overall a fascinating and short read, pretty well exactly what it was designed to be. Very much recommended.
fiendfull's review
4.0
Sewer is another book in the Object Lessons series, exploring sewers as they impact our daily lives though mostly unseen and considering what we should do to improve them for the future. Rather than focusing just on the physical sewers, the book also looks a lot at blockages like fatbergs and wet wipes and considers what human consumption and use does to these practical structures.
The Object Lessons series is always, as far as I've seen from the ones I've read, interesting in some way, with each book taking a particular direction with the object in question. Though Sewer cites Robert Macfarlane's Underland, this book doesn't take that approach of focusing on the physical underground spaces in our imaginations and reality, but considers sewers in their sanitation purpose and what happens when they are blocked, both in terms of the people who work in them and what it is that causes those blockages. Not necessarily a particularly savoury topic for a book, but it was certainly something different and it's useful for thinking about what you personally put down the drain and how your actions are part of a collective whole (which is basically the message of the book).
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