For some reason, reading and using the toilet just go together. The concept of bathroom-themed books is fairly new, but it’s already turned into a niche market. If you’re looking for toilet-specific reading, Deuce Flanagan‘s Everybody Poops 10 Million Pounds: Astounding Fecal Facts from a Day in the City is a great place to start.

Despite being fully-illustrated and potty-humored, Everybody Poops 10 Million Pounds probably isn’t the book you want to hand your kids to read when they follow you to the bathroom. The book discusses the use of dung pessaries as contraceptive devices in antiquity. Other than that, it’s a fairly chaste read.

Much of Flanagan’s facts focus on waste treatment in modern-day New York City. However, Everybody Poops 10 Million Pounds also examines elimination in primitive cultures and the Industrial Revolution. If you’ve ever wondered how New York City sewers actually work — and how long it took to perfect them — this book has the answers you’re looking for.

I’m going to assume that no readers pick up Everybody Poops 10 Million Pounds looking for the Great American Novel. It certainly doesn’t sell itself as such. Flanagan’s book is entirely unpretentious. Want to learn about how waste disposal works in the modern period, and how far we’ve come to achieve such marvels, with a little humor and plenty of interesting mini-facts? If so, then you’ll love this little gem. Otherwise, you’ll be better off stocking your bathroom magazine rack with something else.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book from Ulysses Press in exchange for this review.

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Image: macaron*macaron(Est Bleu2007)/flickr