This thread is for discussion concerning chapters 13-17 of the book.

Finally reached Chapter 17. I'm liking this chapter more than the others - it's actually adding information to a subject I've come across in another book.

Reply to post #2 (show post):
So, the book found its stride in the last chapter, eh? ;D

Reply to post #3 (show post):
Not really - I just like this subject (microbes) more than the other's she decided to discuss.

Finished the book. Review will be posted on the 21 September. I think I need to read a book on bleach next though. Or soap.

Now that my life has become more my own again, I tackled Gulp this afternoon and got through chapter 15. I know this book has had a very mixed reaction amongst those of us reading it so far, but I have to stand up and say I'm really liking it. And it suddenly hit me as to why: when I was a kid I was an ardent subscriber to Discover Magazine, which I read cover to cover every month for 10 years or so (until Disney bought them out and I discovered NewScientist) and one of the columnists was a writer named Judith Stone. She tackled those corners of science that were generally regarded as taboo or 'less important' and she did it with humour and wit. This made a lot of subjects I'd never have been interested in much more entertaining and therefore, more interesting. Like guerrilla gardening, which most people wouldn't like twice at but is fundamental to embassy security all over the world. Or why both sides of your nose don't clog up a the same time when you have a cold.

Roach's writing and Gulp are, to me, like the reincarnation of Judith Stone's work. I'm being entertained and as a result I'm paying a lot more attention to a subject I might ordinarily dismiss or shy away from. Like chapters 13, 14 and 15. And maybe it's because I'd normally shy away from it or pass over it because it is what it is, but I'm learning heaps from these chapters. Definitely not, to be fair, what I'd hoped to learn (which is how, specifically, digestion works and the roll bacteria plays in it) but I am learning.

Well, I finished it today. Ultimately, as I said in my review, I enjoyed it for what it is, even if I was disappointed by what it isn't. A few specific thoughts about the chapters I read today (15-17):

Can I just tell y'all how even more happy I am that I was never tempted to dabble in recreational pharmacology? As if all the myriad indignities that are obvious weren't enough, to risk future damage to your colon? No thanks.

Then there's the megacolon. Those poor people. And I never thought I'd say this, but poor Elvis (never been a fan). I'd heard the rumours, of course, about the location of his death, and even some snide jokes about what he was doing when he died, but it sounds like that man's life was a misery in a very fundamental way; a way there was no possibility of making public or discussing with anyone beyond his own doctor, who admits that medicine didn't understand enough to help him.

Transplants. Ew. I thought it was gross before, but now... no, still gross. But wow does the research look promising for its benefits. I freely admit if I was in the place of the man whose transplant Roach watched, I'd have done it too - anything to escape that kind of life stopping misery. And it's depressing that while the whole approach is definitely "Ew", we're letting that stop us from approving and advancing the research to find out more. I mean come on, childbirth is "EW", but it's still necessary to understand it.

Definitely not sorry I read it - I think the book got better and more informative as it went. There were things I wish she could have expanded on, but overall, it was worthwhile.