OK, I’ll admit it. If there’s no book next to me while I’m on the john, I go nuts. I’ll read the Scott Tissue wrapper or the Lysol label if I have to but I GOTTA READ. It just doesn’t feel right, otherwise. My father was a reader before me, and it’s from him I learned this habit.
So - - who else reads in the can? And is it just a guy thing? I mentioned this to a young fella I work with, and he looked at me as if I had just said that I eat my own excreta as well. I assumed it was pretty widespread (no pun intended), but I guess not…
Of course I do! There’s no TV or computer in there. You can’t read just anything in there, though. Magazines and humor books are about right; I wouldn’t dream of bringing a novel or something else literary.
I’m female and I read in there, too. In fact, the back of the commode is where I keep all my Straight Dope books.
I have no reason for this, but I find reading material in the bathroom to be inexpressably vulgar.
I cannot explain it. Every time I see reading material in someone’s bathroom, I think, “Christ Jesus, how crass!”
I read, but I also keep a stash of half-completed crossword puzzles.
Yup, I write on the can.
Trade journals, entertainment mags, NTSB accident reports all go to the can with me. The latter can be dangerous because I become so involved with them that I don’t realize my legs have gone numb from elbow pressure-but then I read for a few more minutes while the pins and needes phase passes. :crapper reader smiley: 
I confess to being a reader as well. That’s where all my Sierra magazines go when they get here. Also female, FTR.
I have a whole set of the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader books. http://www.bathroomreader.com/home.html Articles are indexed as short, medium and long and include a wide range of topics.
They’re also great to take along to the auto shop, the dentist or anywhere else that the provided reading material is older than you are.
Moving this from IMHO to the bathroom…er, I mean Cafe Society.
I don’t get you reader folks. Unless I’ve got the runs I’m never on the can long enough to read anything other than maybe just a short paragraph.
So what do you do if you’re half way through the article and you’ve already finished taking a dump?
Do you stop mid article and get off the pot?
Or…
Do you stay on your throne untill you have finished the article?
If the latter is true; when do you wipe? before or after the article is done?
Inquiering minds want to know…
Not only am I a reader… I converted my wife as well. At frst she was horrified that I would read while I was “doing my business”, but after not too long, we had in fact installed a magazine rack on the back of the toilet door!
And now, I have trouble finding room for my reading material amongst all those weird wimmin’s magazines that are stacked there.
She has not progressed to the point of reading a book yet, but a magazine is fair game. For myself, I refuse to take non-fiction.
Laptop + TiVo2Go
Laptops & wireless networks are great. I’m on the can right now!
Like Daithi Lacha, I’ll read the toilet paper wrapping or air freshener can if there’s nothing else to look at. At work, I used to bring in my iPod to scroll through or an A5-sized magazine (so I could hide it in my suit pockets) to read.
At home, I bring in the newspaper or a magazine. I also have back-up reading in case there’s no newspaper around: a book of 1000+ historical photographs with commentary on each. This volume has resided in the loo for over a year; I read through four or five photos each sitting…
My current bog reading material is a vast Cinema and TV Film Guide, where each of the 20,000 films has a review of about 200 words. Ideal for browsing: you can simply finish reading the last review and pick up where you left off next time.
Please tell us you’re not masturbating like a motherfuck.
The classic response to a poor theater review: “Dear sir: I am sitting in the smallest room in the house with your review in front of me. Soon, it will be behind me. Sincerely…”
I read in the bath.
Another bathroom reader here - and a bedroom reader, an at-work reader, a… Hell, I’ll read ANYWHERE (even >GASP!< in the car - but only when I’m stuck in a slow drive thru line - and I CAN’T read when I’m a PASSENGER - I get carsick. I hate the wasted time being a passenger).
He may have been shocked that you actually admitted that you READ. MANY people don’t read recreationally (their loss).