I read again and again – and not only in this board – that people read while sitting on the toilet. Magazines, comics, books even! And nowadays, the telephone, it seems. Here is what confuses me: when I sit in the toilet, I finish quickly. A toilet is not a comfy chair, the light is not ideal for reading, I have better places to read. I don’t remember ever having read while shitting or peeing. It very seldom takes more than a minute or two anyway.
So I wonder: do you really read in the toilet? If you do: why? How long does your business in the loo take? Do you read because you get bored otherwise, or to distract you from the actual business?
Depends on what reading material I might find engrossing as well as making sure the last drops get out. I also dislike all the splatter from standing up.
I sit on the toilet, in the bathroom. But enough nitpicking.
I don’t read or do anything but concentrate on what I’m doing, which usually only takes 3-4 minutes tops. That is probably because I don’t attempt to go until I feel the need to go; and also because I take a daily fiber supplement so I don’t get backed up. I have never known anyone who spent a long-enough time on the toilet that they would feel the need to entertain themselves by reading (this sample consists of a relatively small number of people I have ever lived with, maybe a dozen or 15, including roommates, relatives, and significant others).
I visited a friend’s apartment once where she had a book like that. It smelled strongly of urine. So I’ve made a point of never bringing printed material into the bathroom.
When I was young my diet and digestive system was very slow. I would sit in there for at least ten to twenty minutes sometimes. But things have mellowed since then, not sure exactly why, and now my daily visits are less than five.
Well, feel blessed to always having had a healthy and quick digestion, not all of us are, I never was. In my younger days, a typical stay for me for number two was 15 minutes, and I was always glad if it worked out after that time. I had to clear my mind in the meantime, so I always had reading material. With age, that changed and I have become quicker on the loo, but now I have IBS which isn’t a pleasure either.
What is confusing you may be that you think everyone can finish quickly. This is not so. One of the many things that varies considerably about humans is their digestive systems.
Also, some people living in busy households may use the bathroom as a refuge – about the only place where they’re allowed to be alone.
When I was young, for me it was often the second of those reasons. Now that I’m old and live alone, it’s more likely to be the first.
While I am normally done with the daily business quickly there have been times in my life when things were backed up or the trains reluctant to leave the station. Sometimes reading for a few minutes allows me to relax sufficiently for that which should to depart.
Mostly, though, the bathroom library shelf is for reading during hot, steamy baths that are good for my arthritis, particuarly in the winter.
As for reading material smelling of … waste products… while I can imagine scenarios where that could occur it really shouldn’t happen. Put down the reading before moving to actions that involve clean up and don’t touch it again until after you wash your hands properly.
In the case of the smelly bathroom reader I experienced, I think the problem was that the book never left the bathroom, where it sat atop the toilet tank. So it absorbed odors over time.
Time on the commode is a threat to authoritarians. Henry Ford hired men’s room goons to police it. We were warned nearly 300 years ago when Lemuel Gulliver visited the academy at Laputa:
“He advised great statesmen to examine into the diet of all suspected persons; their times of eating; upon which side they lay in bed; with which hand they wipe their posteriors; take a strict view of their excrements, and, from the colour, the odour, the taste, the consistence, the crudeness or maturity of digestion, form a judgment of their thoughts and designs; because men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent, as when they are at stool”
And in fact, Stalin did re-route the Kremlin plumbing during Mao’s visit for just this purpose.
First off, unless you’ve bought a new book for yourself and smelled the nice aroma, which I recommend.
Is there a reason to smell a person’s books?
I have been known to hide in the bathroom. Umm. Kinda alot. The closet is my favorite place, tho’. I keep a bottle of water stashed in there in case I get thirsty. Yeah, I roll weird.
To be frank, the smell was unavoidable. It may be that anything absorbent left in the bathroom is going to acquire odors so I avoid leaving stuff there. (The bathroom rug and of course the towels are washed regularly.)
Huh. My bathroom smells slightly is pee immediately after i relieve myself, and the smell is gone by the time the toilet finishes flushing. My husband doesn’t miss the toilet, and never leaves an odor of urine behind. I wonder about your aim, frankly.
We have a bathroom fan for smellier activities.
I mostly read either my phone or an ebook that can’t into the bathroom when i did, and we no longer leave reading material in the bathrooms. (Pre-cell-phones, we did.) But smelly reading material was never a problem back in the days when i (and several of my friends) left books to live in the bathroom.
