# How Commonplace Is Bathroom Reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 5, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493 "2012-01-05T11:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/41 "2012-01-06T00:32:16Z")
I never have and I can’t understand the attraction. I’m not in there long enough to read more than a paragraph and I’d much prefer to be in a comfortable chair than sitting on a hard toilet seat. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/42 "2012-01-06T00:42:25Z")
I always read, in fact I’ve read almost all my book at least partly in the toilet (except for the Bible). Constipation is as unknown to me as menstrual cramps, but my diet ensures lots of traffic coming out. If there’s nobody at home I take my laptop. As \*\*Der Trihs \*\* mentioned, books and mags kind of accumulate, but in my case it’s my wife who hauls them aways. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/43 "2012-01-06T01:00:14Z")
My grandfather used to be in the bathroom, reading, for hours (ave 2 hrs)… in a house with one bathroom! Imagine the fiasco… yes, we had to make sure to beat him to the bathroom, otherwise yer in deep shit. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/44 "2012-01-06T01:15:12Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I always wipe down used books with isopropyl alcohol before reading them for exactly this reason. > > Certainly my friends and fmaily all have books/magazines in the bathroom. I would consider it rude not to have something available inthe guest bathroom. Nowadays, as a single Mom, it’s the only chance I get to read. … all the pages? ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/45 "2012-01-06T01:16:46Z")
I take my phone with me, and either read or play games. I can’t poo without it. For some reason I don’t want to focus solely on the fact that a stinky squishy terd is being squeezed out of my butthole…you’d think I’d be pretty ok with it after 29 years of doing it. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/46 "2012-01-06T01:21:09Z")
It honestly never occurred to me that people don’t read in the bathroom. So, uh, yeah, there’d be a stack of reading material next to my toilet. Most of my books have never been in the bathroom, but admittedly, some have. Most of them were purchased previously enjoyed and the thought that someone else had taken them into the bathroom, thereby contaminating them with bathroom cooties, never crossed my mind. The sdmb has given me so many things for me to think about. Fortunately, I won’t be losing sleep over this. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/47 "2012-01-06T01:25:48Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > … all the pages? Only the brown ones? 😃 Perhaps used books should come with “sanitized” paper bands like hotel toilets used to. BTW, be careful with your phones near water. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/48 "2012-01-06T01:36:40Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Is it common for people to read in the bathroom? Are most “bathroom reader” books used there in the bathroom? What are the chances that a random used book purchased online has been used in the bathroom? Why don’t people just take laxatives if they’re constipated? I get it over with quickly so I don’t have the time to read in there. You’re lucky. It’s not uncommon for me to be in the bathroom for fifteen or twenty minutes. I have chronic digestive problems. I can’t take laxatives because if I did I’d have to chug them, and it would cause all kinds of other problems. So that’s why I read in the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![Mewl\_Dear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/49 "2012-01-06T02:07:27Z")
You guys don’t handle filthy cash. I wipe my ass with the pages without taking them out of the book. Two wipes per page. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/50 "2012-01-06T02:52:09Z")
Downstairs at home, I have my netbook. I read the dope, or other pages. Upstairs at home, I read books, or sometimes use my tablet. At work, I read my phone, or play Words with Friends. If all else fails, shampoo bottles. Is that weird? > [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#): > > If I don’t have a book in there, I’ll read the back of shampoo bottles. > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I wanna put a bookshelf in there. Hate when you forget to bring reading material then wind up reading the shampoo bottles. I guess not.. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/51 "2012-01-06T03:47:07Z")
The most simpatico people I have ever met are those with either a basket with reading material, or in the case of one aunt, an actual bookshelf in the bathroom. I love bathroom reading. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/52 "2012-01-06T03:58:01Z")
My current bathroom readers: Rock And Roll Will Save Your Life (at home) and Pawnee:The Greatest Town in America (at work–there’s a small cabinet in the handicapped stall with assorted magazines and books). ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/53 "2012-01-06T07:30:03Z")
No offense to anyone, but I thought this reading on the toilet was just an Archie Bunker thing. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/54 "2012-01-06T07:36:51Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’ve always read while in the bathroom. It gives me something to occupy my mind. And no, I’m not constipated. But I don’t see a need to hurry, either. I prefer to let nature take its course. > > I used to read books and magazines in the bathroom. Now I take my iPhone in with me and surf the web. And yes, I’ll post to the Dope while I’m in the bathroom, too. What a shitty thing to say! lol ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/55 "2012-01-06T08:02:48Z")
I have always and forever had three books going at the same time. (At least. Rarely in the kitchen was a new cookbook or the latest book that I Just Couldn’t Put Down.) One in the den, usually a primarily “pictue book” of hidden treasures of the Incas, gold work of the Celts etc. Something I can look at while the TV’s going. In the bedroom is fiction. It soothes and lulls me to follow a simple plot line that piques my interest but doesn’t illicit a response. In the bathroom, tho, is the meat of the matter. I read about courage and social injustice. Wild imagination (Dali) and other biogrophies about sailing to a new world (land-locked hillbilly here) and dropping in to tune out. I used to write in the bathroom when the kids were small. I likened needing to finish a poem as the same thing as having to go the bathroom. I automatically assume that any book I hold has been drug into the bathroom by somebody else before me. Doesn’t bother me a bit. We used to rub vegetables we were picking off on our “laigs” to get the obvious dirt off before eating. Stuff is used, or else why would you have it? Seinfeld, George, “big book” in a coffee shop. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/56 "2012-01-06T08:07:51Z")
I, too, bring reading material to the toilet. Or if I have my iPhone with me, my gaming materials too… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/57 "2012-01-06T08:10:06Z")
I used to, but I always get caught up and don’t leave, not only making the bathroom unavailable to someone else, but also winding up rather uncomfortable. Why not go ahead and leave and sit in some other chair. The most I’ll do now is look at a comic or something. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/58 "2012-01-06T09:02:52Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why not go ahead and leave and sit in some other chair. Something about the safety of a hole… perhaps something primal… ---
**Author:** ![Bibliothecarius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@Bibliothecarius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliothecarius)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/59 "2012-01-08T07:58:54Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Frankly, I often judge people by the quality of the reading material in the bathroom. I have a friend who National Enquirer in the bathroom. > > Does anybody remember the part in “The Big Chill” where Jeff Goldblum complained that his articles were designed to only last as long as the average trip to the bathroom? 😃 That movie inspired me to read _The Brothers Karamazov_ on the can (no, not the whole thing at once! :eek:). Always been a bathroom reader, usually try to get in a few pages of whatever book I’m reading, or if my brain is too taxed to manage it or I’m in a hurry (I mostly read non-fiction of the sort that contains footnotes and was written by college professors), I’ll grab a magazine, the mail, or something else at hand. I, also, don’t understand people who don’t read on the can - what else do you _do_? Sit and stare at the wall silently for several minutes? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493/60 "2012-01-08T08:51:55Z")
I don’t usually read in the bathroom, but then, I’m pretty fast most days. Those times things are taking longer, it’s nice to have something to read. The living arrangements of one of my school friends were: a house with four 3B1b flats, one per floor. First floor, the grandparents; each of the other three floors, one of their many children. My friend’s family lived on the third floor. She shared a bedroom with her sister; the other two bedrooms were also occupied; the living room and kitchen were public spaces where anybody could barge in. She’d use the toilet as her study room (with the lid lowered), as it was the only room where she could be sure she wouldn’t be interrupted. Anybody who needed to use it had to hop over to the second floor. I understand that she kept the habit through college and that, when they were looking for a house and preparing the wedding, her fiance set “two bathrooms” as an unavoidable condition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-commonplace-is-bathroom-reading/608493.md?page=4)