The great GD reading-ecology survey

I have a friend who's an ecologist, and when he isn't working on bats he passes on all manner of snippets of potentially useless information.

His latest is that (according to him) someone did a study indicating that more men than women read while on the loo, and the reason is to do with differences in anatomy -- I have no idea where he found this gem. Question: does this fit in with the experience of GD members?

I've never read on the loo and it's probably too late to start now. I'm intrigued to find out what anatomy has to do with the male/female divide in this respect. I would hold book with hands and read with eyes but obviously there's a catch.

I do not
husband does..

?

weird study... lol

Both me and husband do read in the bathroom.
The difference is I do it when I need peace and quiet, not because I actually use the loo the way it was intended (which husband do).
You don't disturb anyone who says "I'm on the loo" :D

I think the "difference in anatomy" stuff is about the way our innards work.

I have really only done that when I'm burning up a real page turner, not routinely.

I have never, ever read anything in the loo. My ex used to do it all the time. He could be in the bathroom for half an hour or more. I don't think I've ever been in there longer than 5 minutes. I can think of many other places I'd rather be reading.

I read on the toilet, mostly because I have to actively search out time to read in my day and just sitting there doing, uh, what I'm sitting there to do without reading seems a waste of precious potential reading time.

The Husband plays PSP games while 'on the loo'.

ETA: Incidentally, this is how my parents toilet-trained me: they put my favorite books in a basket and set the basket next to the toilet. I could only read those books if I were using the 'potty'. Worked like a charm.

Never read in the bathroom with the exception of the odd magazine article I was into and couldn't put down. (NO NOT Playboy..... sheeeesh!)

Growing up I had a neighbourhood friend who had a magazine rack in the loo. I thought it was an old fashioned toilet paper dispenser, because the SEARS catalogue was always on top.

I...have forgotten I'm on the toilet so engrossed in the book was I. Though I am a girl who will also make sandwiches with one hand and stand there with a knife dripping with mayo untill some one reminds me what I was doing. Zombie with a book I am.

...without reading seems a waste of precious potential reading time.
Ohhhh, exactly.

I'm never in there long enough to make it worth my while. Plus I'll be in and out as fast as I can anyway. I don't like being in toilets.

I rarely make use of the facilities until the moment I need to go. But, occasionally, I'm in there for a while, and then I'll read whatever's within reach.

If I'm in the middle of reading anyways, I'll sometimes bring the book in with me. I also keep a few books on the back of the toilet, but I'm very rarely in there long enough for it to be worth my time to grab them, find my page, etc.

I do and I get most annoyed at myself if I have to dash in there and forget to grab a book on the way.

I would have thought the survey would have come out the other way around, given that us ladies always have to sit down and you gentlemen do not.

Douglas Adams had a name for this in his The Deeper Meaning of Liff, Great Wakering is the feeling of desperation a person has when they urgently need to go to the toilet but can't decide which book to take with them. I know that feeling well.

I have a book in the throne room that has daily entries. That way I don't get too involved and it is short reading.

Not regularly! Neither does hubby, but then he's not great at reading.

My ex-fiance did, though, a lot. Stayed in there for ages - annoying.

I think I have an aversion to it because my father did it and we didn't get on when I was a kid. Also, he'd stay on so long that if I needed the loo, I couldn't use it many times.

Neither male nor female in this house reads in the bathroom. We do not encourage the habit as we have only one bathroom.

I nearly always have something to read in the bathroom. It's a boredom thing. Even if there's some urgency to the situation, I'll tend to find something to bring with. Fortunately, my bathroom is next to the library. ;)

I only keep magazines in the bathroom, sometimes, if I can't put a book down, I'll take it in but not if it's a borrowed book.

There are two females and three males in this house, all read in the bathroom, fortunately we have two bathrooms and all are courteous enough to finish the duty quickly if someone else has pressing need. All three of my children were potty trained with books, worked like a charm. The boys got to aim at Cheerios for the other business, that worked too.

#19 - Cheerios?

*ponders*

*Goes down to check the kitchen cabinets*

Groo - The men at a social the other night told me that Fruit Loops would be more fun because you could assign points by color. Sigh. I wouldn't know about those fun games.

#21- FRUIT LOOPS!!!

*Runs back downstairs*

Both husband and I read in the loo. For me, it's an issue of boredom - if I'm going to be there for more than two minutes, must have something to read.

Will not take my throne until I've got a book. Many a time I've been running around the house like a chicken with his head cut off, having to go... now just where did I put my current read?!

Sometimes I'm in there for a half hour, atleast. *guilty*

I've been known to extend my stay on the pot if the reading was so good that I couldn't tear myself away to finish the "paperwork" ;)

I've been known to read shampoo bottles and Drano cans if there's nothing else available. In my bathroom, there is any entire book shelf available.

I'll read in the bath, but the loo never!

I do all the time, so does my daughter. Neither my husband or my son do... ever! I have magazine holders in two of the bathrooms and a bookcase in the third. Oddly, in this family, who reads o the throne and who doesn't has little (if anything) to do with who is spending the most time in there out of necessity, if you catch my drift. LOL Like many stated before us, my daughter and I often forget where we are while reading...

I tried to read in the bath once. It was relaxing and nice, but my arms got too sore.

Hel loo everyone! *waves*
We have a bookcase and a magazine rack in our loo. We have the luxury of having a slightly larger room than normal, so there is a dresser in there as well.
I have IBS so having reading material is a must to get you through it sometimes. Frustratingly though, if you have to make a mad dash for the dunny - and you've forgotten where you've put your latest read down, you can spend half a minute in a mad spin in the middle of the central room in the house attempting to second guess "will I make it in time if I check the bedside table/coffee table/backroom etc." Knowing you have a choice of reading literature at that particular point in time no more enters your head than 'oh, opportunity to read without being disturbed...'

# 29, Will, there is a rack that you can purchase, made of wood, that you sit across the top of your bath. It hold soaps and sponges etc, but the really good ones have a fold out book holder. I like to keep a dry flannel (face washer) in mine so that I can dry my hands before turning a page. Highly recommend this little luxury.

My MIL used to wrap the covers of the used books my FIL bought in saran wrap, just because of this conversation. :) I made her a little crazy when I asked what about the pages that have been turned. >:}

ETA: She didn't wrap them because of this particular conversation, but because of the subject we are discussing. Clear as mud?

Also, in my college dorm, there were clear plastic "envelopes" on the back of the stall doors, and there was a weekly one-sheet newsletter that someone (housing association?) would print up and distribute to the bathrooms - some news, trivia, fun facts, that sort of thing. The guys' bathroom always had magazines stuck in the envelopes as well, while the girls' just had the newsletter - if that.

I am perhaps a bit over-fastidious, from the looks of this thread. I would never read while using the toilet. I once loaned a book to a friend, who proceded to read it in the toilet (I saw it there once when I was visiting). When he gave it back to me, it took me months before I could rationalize it as "clean" again. Yuck.

Um, folks, you put the book down BEFORE 'clean-up' and then wash your hands before picking it back up.

For those of you who are really squeamish about these things may I suggest you don't keep your toothbrush(es) in the same room as your toilet bowl then, because just the proximity of said object results in coliform bacteria finding its way to your toothbrush. ;o) I saw a whole episode of Mythbusters on this!

It hasn't killed you yet, has it?

>35 clamairy:, No doubt, Clam!

I'm sure we all touch much worse stuff than our own bodily fluids every time we use public facilities!

#35 And Adam's mouth is dirtier than his dog's. That was a good one. (Did you see the phone book one last week? I love those counter-intuitive ones.)

Both hubby and I read on the loo. He has a bookshelf in his bathroom. I usually have a special book just for the purpose. For instance, right now I'm reading V for Vendetta, but only on the loo.

The other day I took a book of knitting patterns in there and didn't come out until I had decided what I was going to knit next. Hubby thought I fell in.

Oh yeah, cup o'joe, cigarette and the morning paper keeps me regular as a railroad clock.

37 - My mind is dirtier than most people's. I've never checked my mouth.

>38 Jasper: Haha - I was going to comment about how frequently I find newspapers in the bathrooms at work. No coffee or cigarettes, though. ;)

We are bathroom reader's. I fact I have Uncle John's Bathroom Readers in my 2 bathrooms. My downstairs one has a magazine rack in it with books, magazines, and catalogues.

34 - Exactly! And yes, because of certain TMI digestive issues, I keep a small library in the facilities.

Both of us read while in the bathroom. Hubby is worse than I am. He cannot get off the pot until he finishes his chapter and he reads those thousand-page fantasy tomes so sometimes he's in there for awhile.

26> MerryMary, I too have been known to read shampoo bottles out of desperation.

>41 cal8769: I own a copy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into New Jersey but I would never consider reading it or anything in the bathroom, either in the bath..or while using any other of the facilities.
do what it is one needs to do and get out...not a place to hang around in my book..as it were.

In the WholeHouseLibrarySystem, there are 3 bathrooms. One is my son's (for now) and we don't go in there if we don't have to; otherwise, one contain magazines and snippet books, and the other has catalogs and newspapers. Because of my particular issues, I tend to be in the bathroom a whole lot more often than my wife, so I like to keep them both well-stocked with LOTS of paper items....

No. (But we read in every other room which sometimes means a hunt-to-find-the-book-we-want!)

Definitely no bathroom readers here. We don't have indoor plumbing and have to use an outhouse. In the winter, which runs from October to June, everyone strives to make the experience as brief as humanly possible. And no one wants to be first to break the trail through the snow, either.

This thread appears to be a fad at the moment. I've had the same question pop up on two other forums in the last week. Spooky? You betcha!

#48 - Is it something like what my mom used to call "potty mouth"? Meaning all the talk on the subject. ;)

I always have read in the bathroom since as a kid it was a sure way to temporarily avoid putting my book down & doing something else that I was less enthused about-like the dishes! With 6 people in the house tho it frequently got me yelled at. I still do it & I am now living alone. It is just a great way to extend my reading time.

I'm a bathroom reader - always have been. It's easier now that I live alone (no one needing to get in). But I grew up with magazine racks in the bathroom, so when I got my own place of course I added them - I have two, here, and they're overflowing. The problem is that while a magazine story is usually just about the right length, if I read them that slowly I get the next month's before I finish this month's. Right now I have problems that require a relatively long time on the throne, so I'm cutting down my supplies - yay!

The other problem is that now I have games on my phone (and yes, I bring my phone in - it's in the belt holster, I'm not going to explicitly remove it for a bathroom trip!). Sometimes I don't read at all.

14> That was my thought - men stand up half the time, women always sit down so I would expect more women to read than men. Very odd. I'd love to see that study!

I used to, but do not any more (comfort factor). My father did; my nephews do; my mother did not.

I know of a man that takes his e-reader into the bathroom at work. I wonder if the type of book (paper vs. electronic) makes a difference.

I do read in the bathtub regularly, if only for 10-15 minutes. Not long enough for my arms to get tired. Always a paperback that, if I drop it, and I have, it is not a great tragedy.

On the loo, nope, not necessary.

Always read in the bathroom. Whether it's on the loo or in the bath it beats staring at the wall or ceiling. Why waste the opportunity?

I don't believe one should unnecessarily take paper reading materials into a room with as much water and germs in it as a bathroom. Come to think of it, I don't take electronic stuff in with me either. Really, how much time are you going to spend in there?

The older you get...

The more you need to concentrate on the job in hand.

My husband brings the iPad in there now. (eyeroll)
I stash a Wired in there and read a paragraph or so at a time. Takes me a long time to read a whole magazine.

>57 PossMan: What is UP with that? Nowadays I have to put the magazine down if I want to get any "business" done. Sheesh.

There's always at least one magazine and/or book in our bathroom. I also have a book of crossword puzzles in there. I'll occasionally take the iPad in with me if I'm reading something über interesting or if I'm in the middle of replying to a post here in the GD.