Bathroom Books

Okay, this would be a delicate topic for just about any group, but this one.
;o)
I just finished off the perfect bathroom read (all stand alone paragraphs) called Doctors Killed George Washington and put out another called Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade.

Do any of you do likewise?

When I was a kid & there were 4 kids plus our parents & only 1 bathroom I used to seek the 'refuge' of the bathroom to read when 'she who must be obeyed' otherwise known as my Mom had other plans for my time. She had this strange notion that i also should be a neat freak about the bedroom which i shared w/my sister who was one -neat freak that is! So many times i would hear someone pounding on the door & saying I know you're reading in there. Still managed quite a few paragraphs, pages & even chapters before exiting-stage left. 8^)

I like to leave out quotation books. The current one:



Sample:

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time in reading it. -- Moses Hadas.

I think I mentioned the Scotland Street novels in a thread somewhere. There are 3 books in the series. They were originally published in small, daily installments. In the books, each chapter is about 2 1/2 pages. Since each chapter was published separately, it's easy to read a little at a time without losing a sense of what's going on.

I certainly don't mean that these books are ONLY worthy of bathroom reading! They are very good and entertaining!

Try Uncle John's Bathroom Readers They have varying length stories for however long you'll be indisposed and a lot of trivia. They are excellent.

One of my favorite bathroom books is Schott's Miscellany. It's got lots of interesting trivia that you can read in small bits as time permits ;-) and that are entertaining too. I also liked the new Wordsmith book The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two, about the origin of funny words. (stupid touchstones!) It's by Anu Garg.

I keep my recent copy of Bark in the bathroom to read.

Not a book, but Reader's Digest magazine works very well. Of course we have The Great American Bathroom Book III.

I'm not one to keep books in the bathroom (the place is way too messy and I'd probably loose them), but a friend of mine keeps a copy of "The Intellectual Devotional" in his. I must say, it makes for a good bathroom read.

I've had the same four books in my bathroom for years:
The Devil's Dictionary
Book of Nonsense
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (touchstone won't load)
Now We Are Sick
They're all perfect to keep in there.

My mother has three bathrooms in her house, so a few years ago I gave her The Darwin Awards, The Darwin Awards II, and The Darwin Awards III for Christmas. She also has The Incomplete Book of Failures, but that's in the living room.

@11: You want to have a look (and a laugh) at The Annals of Improbable Research by Marc Abrahams, who started the Ig Nobel prizes. Great laughs and food for thought in sizeable chunks.
I just ordered volume 2 for my bathroom.

Ooh, nifty! Another Christmas present for my mother!

#5 is right.

The Bathroom Readers are wonderful, amazing, nifty.

We own every edition.

#5 is right.

The Bathroom Readers are wonderful, amazing, nifty.

We own every edition.

Well, I'm in dire need of bathroom reading material this morning.
:o/
I finally succummed to that stomach bug that is making the rounds.

Oh poor clam. I was hoping that the family bug would skip you.

5>

I gave that book to my Uncle, who oddly enough has "John" as a first name. He is a big bathroom reader so he appreciated that I picked out a book that practically had his name on it.

We have Uncle John's Bathroom Readers a variety of them - and the downstairs bathroom has a window with the stupendous view of.......under the deck so
I have put up shelves in the window frame and that now houses the manga

Message 19 - Who are you? Your post shows with no name....????

HEhe these are silly! I just take a magazine with me!

Creepy - it's like the Invisible Man unwrapping the bandages to reveal an empty void...

Back on the topic of voiding... *cough*

I "won" a package of Sit & Solve brainteasers during the X-mas white elephant exchange.

When Jacana were deciding whether my SAPPI tree spotting What's in a Name book was to be published they sent a copy of the MS to SAPPI in the hopes of getting the paper as a donation. The lady I worked with came bact to me saying "Yes we're publishing but er, I don't know if I can tell you what SAPPI actually said" Cross-examination yielded the information that their reader rated it highly as a book to read while on the loo. I'm still cackling, and the book's in it's second impression. (Touchstone flaky)

#19 was me. I'm not sure how I discovered anonymity, or if I could do it again.

What a cool trick.. Do it again, do it again!!
*clapping hands gleefully*

I used to have (before the fire) a couple of little books called "Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse"-do not remember author name of any other details except they were funny!
8^)

No, #19 was me.

No, I'm Spartacus!

Oh, wait...

Was it him or...... was it the butler?

I used to have (before the fire) a couple of little books called "Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse"-do not remember author name of any other details except they were funny!
8^)

Have the bathroom elves been playing a bit around this thread?

Or am I just going mad?

Or just going sane?

Or just...?

Looks like we're going to have to have a Charlie Brooker test to find out who is really reading his book.

(PS: It's me).

I'm reading that book. And so's my wife.

What's your favourite bit?

Oh, that would have to be the part with the iguana, of course. Yours?

So I mentioned that my money comes from the manufacture of toilets so I propose myself as the undisputed expert on this subject and would like to propose my companies history villeroy and boch as the ideal companion, in spite of (or perhaps because) it dwells on the apparently more aesthetically attractive part of our business, tableware although pages 165-167 offer a little something for the connoisseur.

#36 - Not the part with the puffin?

TANKs for that, Barry! :D

Goldwater?

Not to be indelicate, but I think any book is fair game for the bathroom--if I get a few pages read, it seems like time well spent!

I personally never read on the toilet. The poor books... I could not treat my babies with such indignities...

Reading on the bus is another matter.

You do know that sitting on the toilet for long periods of time is bad for you, riiiiiiight?

I do now...

Boyfriend Charged in Kansas Toilet Case

Now I feel sick again.

Er, I was referring to 'roids, but... okey-dokey.

Oh, heh heh.

*blush*

I think perhaps this thread needs re-reading by some?

Is there a newer one of these somewhere?

Right now I am working on Thereby Hangs a Tale in the Master bath.

Here's the another one: www.librarything.com/topic/125723

Ben Schott's Original Miscellany

The Royal Tour: Or the Cruise of the Ophir a journal kept by one of the British seamen. Pretty illustrations, he was quite the watercolorist, and interesting to read about the tour from the perspective of a flatfoot (that's what they called themselves).

Any collections of Onion articles are good, such as Our Dumb World or Our Dumb Century.

Pro tip: don't keep books on the toilet tank because they might fall into the bowl and be ruined. It happened to me.

Ouch. I've never dropped a book in the bowl. My kids used to drop things in all the time, though. In fact my son flushed one of my daughter's favorite action figures once because he thought it was scary.

#52 - Sounds like an Action Adventure to me!

#52 ~~ Help! I've fallen and I can't . . . glub glub glub.

#53 - I'm not sure Demona would agree.

LOL, millhold!

*tee hee hee*

The new "Old Farmer's Almanac" always resides there in our house.

> 51. Any collections of Onion articles are good

I prefer books with pages made of onion skin.

I remember mentioning in a similar thread that I've kept Knife of Dreams in the bathroom, seeing as I can't force myself to read it anywhere else.

#55 - You must have awesome toilet volume, if that actually flushed and didn't clog! Poor Demona. "Demona's Degrading Adventure"

Oh, it didn't clog, but it drained very slowly for a couple of weeks. It wasn't until afterwards he'd told us what he'd done. I think he was only three at the time. I'm pretty sure my daughter still hasn't forgiven him. (for that and a thousand other things!)

I keep devotional readers in the bathroom, the type that you can pick up free in a church's lobby. Each entry is usually only one page long, and inspirational as well.

I have one of the dinky copies of The Four Agreements.

I still have The Discovery of France in my bathroom. I'm not a toilet seated reader, I am a tub soaker reader. I've dropped books in the tub, more than once. Sad.

At the moment, I have A Potted History of Vegetables in my bathroom. It was one of my SantaThing books this year and I have been enjoying it in small snippets for months. A charming little book.

>65 maggie1944:: Some of my favourite books have water-stained pages from where I just had to take them into the bath with me! Oops!

Speaking of books and water I used to take books (paperbacks only) into the pool and ziplock them into a bag, and do kick-laps with an inflatable tube. I got to read and my legs (and other parts) got firm. :oD Turning pages was a pain, but I kept a towel at each end in case I needed to dry my hand to turn the page.

I used to read in the tub, too, but I got out of the habit of taking baths when my kids were young and never managed to get back into it.

I have Family-the ties that Bind and Gag! by Erma Bombeck it is hilarious. 8^)