Remaking the John: The Invention and Reinvention of the Toiletby Francesca Davis Dipiazza
21st Century Books
August 2014
What a great and intriguing examination of the history of the --- (substitute here any of the common and also amazing names this invention goes by). For something we see every day, the toilet is a complex story of need, invention, re-invention, and implementation.
What's different about this book
Dipiazza does an excellent job explaining something that we don't think about: We just depend on it. So much of this information seriously causes the reader to think about how life used to look, how it reached the level of technology we have today -- and how primitive our current actualization of a toilet still is. The concluding discussion of where the 21st century needs to go in developing the toilet in an eco-friendly way is also interesting.
Just don't try to read it (as I did) during your lunch time. The narration is very real.
What I'll do now that I've read it
This book is now in my young adult library collections, and the cover display has received some reader interest. I think it will catch some reluctant readers who might be immune to some of the slicker fiction covers.
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