As for me, I read about half the time I visit the little girls room if I’m at home. Magazine article, finishing up a chapter, etc. Why not? Besides, I become quickly engrossed in my books, and have a habit of reading wherever I am. (i.e. walking to class with nose in book, climbing stairs with nose in book, eating dinner with nose in book, etc.) Why not do your thing with nose in book?
Apparently YOU don’t have small children. My bathroom isn’t just a potty room–it’s a sanctuary! 
There’s not enough time. I don’t need a book in my car for stoplights. I guess some people don’t push.
You do realize, of course, why T. Eaton Co. catalogues were so popular in water closets and back houses of the north?
Read 'em and wipe.
I’m never there long enough to read anything. I don’t go to the bathroom until I need to go, and if I’m wrong about the immediacy of the need I pull my pants up and come back later.
Another reading suggestion. I always take that huge stack of ads that come in the sunday paper and put those in the bathroom. I’ll read them and throw them away. I always feel sort of guilty when I take the time to just read them without doing something else.
I’d read if I were given the chance. In our house, the dogs have radar - “ooh, I can tell by the way mom/dad is walking he/she is going to take a dump! Yay! That means he/she’ll be sitting and I can stick my face right in his/hers and beg to be petted! If they try to shut the door on me I’ll whine/cry/scratch at the door and make a huge pain of myself until they open it again!”
I love my dogs, but I feel like the world’s biggest idiot sitting on the pot petting a dog.
HELL NO! I’ve said it before so many times - the bathroom ain’t for reading. You can’t tell me you can’t find a more comfortable chair, better lighting, and less aroma. Go in, do your business, and then go read. Unless you’ve got some digestive system malfunction that causes you to sit there for a bit you’ve got no excuse. The appeal of the practice escapes me.
It takes an act of will for me to go to the bathroom without something to read. It helps pass the time and takes my mind off … er, other matters.
And to correct some misconceptions in this thread, I don’t read only when I’m on the potty – I read whenever I can get away with it. Unfortunately, between a two-year-old toddler and a frazzled wife, that’s not very often, and the bathroom is a welcome sanctuary.
(I’d love to lie down on the sofa and read, but the problem is that we don’t have a sofa yet. 
)
How about posting? Does that mean I bought a long phone cord for my laptop for nothing? Do I have to go sit somewhere else now? But wait, if I can’t read the SDMB in the WC, then I might miss something!
I think the funniest thing about this thread is that people are actually arguing about whether it’s correct or not to read in the bathroom, as though there’z some kinda rule about it or something. 
Did we conclude that this is something of a guy thing?
I don’t read on the toilet. I just chat with whichever toddler has followed me in.
Hell, I’ve been known to bring a book with me to the *urinal.
A long time ago I used to think this was pretty much a guy thing, until one day in high school my history teacher mentioned of her habit. I can’t remember what prompted her to share that with us, but I doubt she’s be too thrilled to know that that’s one of the few tidbits I remember about her.
Of course I read. I read everywhere else, why wouldn’t I read in the bathroom? My dog really doesn’t appreciate it though. He’s a tiny dog, and he’ll be jumping up and down in front of me, desperately wanting to get up in my lap. I have to give in. He’s to cute to ignore. And, I also feel like the world’s biggest idiot, with a book in my hand and a dog on my lap.
My Senior year in HS my English teacher mentioned that those 15-20 mins spend per day sitting with nothing else to do is the perfect time to read. I mean you are sitting still and the brain needs something to do. I also have an irriable bowel and so help me even if things are moving right along I need something to read. I LOVE to read. I would, if I could, read all night and day. In fact my Mom threw out all my books when I was in eighth grade because I was reading “fun books” instead of doing my homework. I read when I eat lunch. If I cannot watch TV at breakfast there had better be something to read. Dinner-if it is solo night-same story.
I don’t read. I have a miniature pool table mounted on a lazy Susan that sits on a table in front of the toilet.
Actually, that’s a pretty good idea now that I think about it. 'Scuse me, I have a project to work on.
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Hey! were you watching me drive?
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Or maybe we just have a lot on our, ahem, minds. Actually, my brother always took a long time, and he never had anything to read either. Sometimes he’d be in there for like 20 minutes! (and no, I don’t think he pursuing any other “extracurricular” activities) When asked about his extended seat-time, he insisted that he was NOT going to develop hemmoroids, a condition he believed a direct result of pushing too hard.
Strainger, do you think you could whip up a computer stand for my laptop, too?
I’ve got to have something to read. With 3 kids, it’s the only time I get any peace and quiet. I’ve been in so long before, I lose the feeling in my feet.
I guess I’m so damned effiecient I can’t stand to NOT do something. I open mail, write checks, read business periodicals, read Playboy articles (yes, ladies some guys do read the articles), or even catch up on journal writing.
The Throne Room is where I usually browse through the junk mail and sale catalogs. Since the job doesn’t take long, the reading material has got to be short attention span fare.
Like romansperson and Soda, one of my little dogs always shows up for a pat on the head.