# Bathroom Urge at the Library **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133 "2001-06-25T22:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/1 "2001-06-25T22:11:50Z")
OK this is a weird one. For the last few years whenever I go to a library I develop the urge to go to the bathroom. I haven taken data or anything but such factors as time of day or week and library location vary without changing the result. I can never recall “having to go” when I arrive but the urge does soon develop. What would cause this? Is it possible to develop this kind of habit (i.e. I’m so used to this happening that once I arrive I get the urge)? I suppose that a good thing would be that I have a ready-made cure for constipation. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/2 "2001-06-25T22:24:54Z")
Okay, I admit it, I have experienced the same thing, at not only the library but also Barnes & Noble. I think it may be a phenomenon limited to ‘book people’ and a result of the extreme relaxation/ stressfreeness (like that word?) that being surrounded by books causes. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/3 "2001-06-25T22:31:13Z")
Yup. I get this one too. Even thought about starting a thread about the phenomenon. I walk into a bookstore, record store, library, etc., and I’d better be darned sure I went before I left the house. I know where all the bathrooms of the better retail establishments here in town are. If someone can explain this, I’ll be eternally grateful. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/4 "2001-06-25T22:38:50Z")
This has been discussed before but I don’t recall any conclusions being arrived at other than the obvious one that a lot of people are troubled by this. Someone suggested that it’s related to reading while using the bathroom but that doesn’t make too much sense to me. For one thing I never read while I’m standing in the bathroom, if you know what I mean, and yet the bookstore urge for me is always my bladder. I’m wondering if it’s the simultaneous contradictory combination of relaxation and concentration that brings it on. I’m usually just idling along through the shelves, but my mind is actively reviewing and analyzing. Maybe there’s just too much stuff going on to pay any attention to resisting bodily functions. I’d write more but I gotta go right now. I have to see a man about a dog. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/5 "2001-06-25T22:57:53Z")
I used to get this too, and never had the faintest idea why. Doesn’t happen any more though, I guess it “passed”. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/6 "2001-06-25T22:59:42Z")
Ever since I was a child I’ve found that browinsg a library or bookstore induces the urge to move my bowels. I wondered about it for a long time, and everyone I questioned about it looked at me like I was a freak. So I stopped asking. I eventually just chalked it up to some psychological effect, until I was dating a girl and we were in Tower Books and we both got hit by the urge. (Well, and another urge, too, but that’s a different thread). We were both thrilled to discover that we had the same reactions. We each thought we were the only ones in the world. We were both book lovers, but we read in bed or in comfy chairs, not on the toilet. She said that she thought it was the formaldehyde they used in paper. But she was no chemist or biologist. She was a dancer. Well, she was a waitress, actually… trying to become a dancer. Which she did, eventually. (And then promptly dumped me for a sexy male dancer - hell, I thought they were all gay. I woulda done him, in fact! But that’s a a different thread.) We never did really figure out what the cause for the bookstore bathroom effect was, though. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/7 "2001-06-25T23:04:44Z")
A prior thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33906](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33906) This has happened to me in the past, but it was only in my college library (which always did smell a bit musty). I’m on the side of the theory that it’s something about the books themselves, maybe yellowing paper or paper dust. Some people are more sensitive, so it happens to them in bookstores as well. Anyone wanna ask Cecil about it? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/8 "2001-06-25T23:47:43Z")
I work in a library and I seem to go to the bathroom about as often as anyone else. Perhaps I have become acclimated to the place. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/9 "2001-06-25T23:56:42Z")
All my tension goes away when I enter a library or bookstore. At **Bookstar** , a 1940’s era theatre converted into a _huge_ bookstore here in Nashville, the sales people are always in & out of the Men’s Room, usually carrying toilet paper rolls or towels. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/10 "2001-06-26T14:05:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zgystardst \* > A prior thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33906](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33906) Thanks! I did a search before posting but didn’t hit on this one. It _is_ nice to have a bit of a “support group” as it were ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/11 "2001-06-26T16:45:46Z")
I have a two part theory that relates in part to having been pregnant and then to toilet training my daughter. Simply put: You want to go to the bathroom in bookstores and libraries because bookstores and libraries have bathrooms. I haven’t really noticed the phenom in bookstores, but I always get it in big warehouse stores like Costco. The reason I mention the pregnancy and toilet training thing is that both of these conditions train you to memorize where the nearest restroom is relative to your accustomed shopping destinations. If you get the urge in, say, a grocery store, you are just going to have to wait. But in a bookstore, you know you can take care of it. Another factor might be that in bookstores (and probably in warehouse stores, too) we tend to slow down and browse more. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/12 "2001-06-26T17:18:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cher3 \* > \*\* > Another factor might be that in bookstores (and probably in warehouse stores, too) we tend to slow down and browse more. \*\* I think Cher3 might be onto something here. When I’m in a bookstore, I suspect its probably due to the fact that I’m there for a long time-I can scarcely conceive of a quick run to a bookstore. When I’m in the university library and I’m stuck trudging up and down the stairs, hunting for articles, and eventually carrying around the equivalent of a whole dead tree in copies, I suspect I start wanting to use the bathroom/eat/drink, etc as a way to break up the monotony. ---
**Author:** ![ElDestructo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@ElDestructo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElDestructo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-urge-at-the-library/70133/13 "2001-06-26T17:22:37Z")
I, too, want to poo in libraries and bookstores. If this isn’t a question for the Master or one of his cronies, I don’t know what it. We have a confirmed phenomenon with no obvious explaination and the Teeming Millions are crying out for knowledge. Time to engage the Straight Dope research machine and get to the bottom of this.