So I like to read on the john sometimes. What’s so damned bad about that? You get older, sometimes it takes a little longer to have a dump. How to occupy the time? Well, your options are pretty limited in that position, aren’t they. It’s not like I can practice getting the slice out of my drive or something.
And why must this only be a “disgusting guy habit”? I don’t wait outside the loo with a stopwatch, or anything, but there doesn’t seem to be any significant difference in the crapping process that I can discern between either sex. Don’t you get bored in there too, ladies?
And I’m not lying: I wash my hands before, and I wash them after. Before wiping, I set the reading materials down in a dry place, and do not touch them again until my hands are cleansed. I’m not going to spread a plague of coliform bacteria throughout the house. Look, if you can brush your teeth right next to the porcelain throne, then I can damn well read on it in just as sanitary a manner, if I take the proper precautions.
So what’s the freaking big deal, eh? I’ve have it on several good authorities that reading while answering nature’s call in a seated position is uncouth, unclean, and uncivilized. IOW, only smelly, hairy beasts (yet, paradoxically, quite literate) would engage in such a repugnant activity. Well, I don’t think it’s all that bad, and I suspect I’m being repressed by certain prejudiced members of society who cannot approach the issue rationally. So please, help me understand why I shouldn’t pass the time with an issue of Time during the passage of other things.
What’s the big deal? I’m female, and I’m a very efficient pooper - most of the time it’s five minutes or less. And yet for those five minutes, I still have a book in hand. Are you kidding? I could read ten pages in those five minutes!
Is there an issue? Do people complain? I thought this was pretty much universal, even in people who are embarrased to admit it.
I have to have something to read when I am on the john. Hell, if I have to poop in a public toilet, I will read my driver’s license or money if that’s all I’ve got.
I never heard it was a big deal to anyone. My gf reads on the john, everyone in my family does, heck my ex landlord used to put bookshelves in the bathrooms of the houses he built!
My wife has more reading material in her bathroom than I have in mine. But, in the past, I *have * heard such feelings expressed by certain un-named females (not the wife.)
People really expect to a little shittery reading? How odd.
The bathroom in my office is cleaned at least ten times per day. All offending objects are swiftly removed with a minimum of inconvenience to the employees. Yet by the end of the day, some stalls have a half dozen printouts from ESPN.com or other such intellectual feasts. The janitor knows better than to remove them; even non-sportsfan philistines like myself believe that leaving reading material in the bathroom is a public service.
The few women I’ve encountered who complained about my reading in the bathroom tended to be very controlling – it showed in other areas of the relationship.
The only problem I’ve ever had with it is if it’s a one-bathroom house, in which case there is probably a line forming outside the door. Other than that, have at it!
I should add I don’t even allow soaking in the tub in my house because of this. One needs to be able to vacate on a moment’s notice. If you must read, do it somewhere else. If you must soak, soak when no one else is home. Just a practicality.
It squicks me out a little bit. When you take a magazine with you at work, you’re pretty much broadcasting your intention to take a dump. That’s really more info than I wanna know. Plus, yeah, maybe I’m a little neurotic about it, but I always worry about backsplash onto the reading material so I squicked out to see stuff I know has been in the men’s room put out as reading material in the breakroom.
That said, I always have reading material in the bathroom at home.
I have a bookshelf in the bathroom. It’s in reach of the tub or the toilet. I like to read in the tub and sometimes I read on the toilet. If there is nothing to read in there I will wind up reading the Tampax instructions or the backs of bottles and things.
I don’t have a problem with other people doing it. I’ve just never been in the bathroom long enough to read. If I’m in the bathroom for more than three or four minutes, I’m in no condition to read.
By the way, Loopydude, if you want to work on your golf game, you might try one of these.*
Warning: Contains picture of guy on potty holding putter, may not be considered work safe for some of you. Open at your own risk.
I read in the tub and on the throne. I read while I eat, if I’m eating alone. I always have a book with me if I am going to an appointment where I might have to wait. There is usually some sort of reading material in the Jeep.
I’m congenitally incapable of just sitting anywhere without needing something to read. I usually have a bunch of reading material in the crapper and if I’m going anywhere at all where I think there may be a chance that’ll I’ll have to sit or wait for anything, I always bring a book.I also bring books to restaurants.
