2008年《经济学人》最佳图书：人类上厕所，就像呼吸一样平常，可人们却羞于去谈论它。正是因为人们对其三缄其口，才会导致这么多疾病的发生。每年死于腹泻的人比艾滋病、肺结核和疟疾还要多。世界上差不多80%的疾病都是由于没有很好地处理人类粪便所导致的，人类粪便所带来的污染差不多每5秒钟就能导致一个儿童死亡。人类粪便对人类健康有如此大的威胁，竟然仍能对这个问题不理不睬。究其原因就是厕所成了人类及其粪便之间的一道屏风，人们看不到这个世界就以为问题不存在了。但是，全球仍有26亿人没有任何简陋的厕所设施。该书作者勇敢闯入了这一禁区，揭开了其中的问题之所在，将问题的严重性、迫切性暴露于众。书中所讲的问题对大众健康极为重要，每个关心自己健康的读者都应该读读本书；书中有一大块内容讲到中国的情况，中国的读者尤其值得阅读。本书作者为《纽约时报》等知名媒体自由撰稿人，文笔犀利、文风幽默，可读性非常强。

Book | “The BIG NECESSITY-The unmentionable world of human wastes and why it matters”

The economist's best book in 2008: the human go to toilet as common as breathing but people were ashamed to talk about it. It caused so many diseases due to people's tight lipped about toilet. More people die of diarrhoea every year than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Almost 80% of the world's diseases are caused by poor handling of human waste, and pollution from human excrement almost killed a child every 5 seconds. People ignore the problem even Human excrement poses such a great threat to human health. The reason is that the toilet has become a screen between human beings and their droppings. People can't see the world, and then they think the problem doesn't exist. But there are still 2 billion 600 million people in the world who do not have any rudimentary toilet facilities. The author boldly broke into the forbidden area and opened up the problem, exposing the seriousness and urgency of the problem. The questions in the book are of great importance to public health, and every reader who is concerned with his own health should read it. There is a large piece of book talking about China, and it is especially recommended to Chinese readers. The author is a free author of famous media such as the New York Times. He has a sharp writing style, a good sense of humor and his book is very readable.