More of the Perfect Bathroom Reading

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Awhile back (2013 actually), I wrote a post on the pastime described in the title. Yes, I decided to go there again. (Get it? Go there? Okay, I really should let that go. Ha ha! Aren’t you glad I stuck around four years as a blogger?)

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Anyhow, the subject came up again recently, and since I have a blog, I decided to discuss it here. No subject is too inane for me to write about. Perhaps you wish some were. Well, it was either this subject or a discussion of what I had for lunch (grilled ham and cheese—see, not much to talk about).

So, what makes for good bathroom reading? Need it be waterproof? What are the criteria? Have they changed in the last four years? Good questions. Well, I’m still very particular about my bathroom reading. As I mentioned in a previous post, novels (non-graphic novels) don’t really work for me, unless the novel is something for which putting it down is next to impossible. But if it’s that impossible to put down, I would remain in the bathroom for hours, reading. (Not a bad thing, really, if you live alone. With a family sharing a bathroom, however, this would be a bad thing.)

I prefer something I can flip through, and perhaps quickly read a section. That’s why, at least for me, magazines (the extent of my nonfiction bathroom reading), alumni newsletters, fun catalogs, and graphic novels still make the perfect bathroom reading. (Nothing much has changed in the last four years.) I love the blend of images and text, which makes finding an interesting place to land very easy. And for the most part, I don’t “cheat” by taking my reading material out of the bathroom to finish reading later. Like I said, this is bathroom reading. It remains on the shelf in my bathroom.

This is what I currently have in my bathroom. Yes, that issue of Entertainment Weekly is as old as dirt. But it’s still fun to look at. And that’s definitely not the latest issue of Game Informer. I usually pass those on to some friends as soon as I finish them. Somehow I managed to hold on to this one.

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I also have this series, written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi (books 3 and 7):

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For more about this fantasy series, go here (the author/illustrator’s website):

Maybe a month ago, I read a great article on the work of Sir Fraser Stoddart, a professor at Northwestern University (see photo below left) who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year. Now, an article of that depth took several sessions to read. Took over a week to read Game Informer’s article on the three doctors who founded BioWare, the videogame developer. (That was a long article.) An article on George R. R. Martin (bottom right) took a few days to finish.

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But I guess the point I’m making is that I love my bathroom reading. It’s just as special to me as my bedtime reading, though the time I spend doing it is a bit shorter. 🙂

Do you keep reading material in your bathroom? If so, what?

Bathroom image from somewhere on pinterest.com. George R. R. Martin photo from christianpost.com. Sir Fraser Stoddart photo from chemistry.northwestern.edu. Other photos by L. Marie.

56 thoughts on “More of the Perfect Bathroom Reading”

  1. I went somewhere fancy recently and they had a shelf in the bathroom for reading materials, much like the image you chose above. There’s no shame in bathroom reading! My regulars: Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Economist, the New York Times Magazine, Runner’s World, National Geographic.

    • All of those are good ones, Laura! I wish I had a subscription to National Geographic. I tend to look at that online.

      People magazine used to be another favorite of mine, until I stopped subscribing.

  2. Waterproof seems to be a need because showers cause the water to become crinkly. I usually do crossword puzzles or search-a-words. Flex the mind since reading is more of a bed/couch activity for me. Like being comfy when reading.

  5. Shockingly, I have no reading material in the bathroom! But fear not for my sanity – this is simply because my Kindle is welded to my hand, so where I go, it goes! And so far, I’ve never dropped it in the bath…

    • Ah, that makes sense! I can see why you have a Kindle since your TBR list is vast. I had one, but it broke. I haven’t replaced it. The library is my Kindle now.

    • Perhaps that is the case, Laura. 🙂 Though we haven’t been able to keep many catalogues in print. So many have disappeared in favor of online shopping.

      • Gotta say, no on-line store can give me a good-fitting pair of jeans…it still takes physically trying on several pairs from several stores to get just the right feel and fit…hard to do with click, buy, delivery to house, try on then send back only to do that over and over geesh. I hate clothes shopping, but I hate having to prolong it further with hit and miss on-line stuff (which is really a glorified version of the old sears catalogue type of shopping anyway)
        A little soapbox added to your casual comment above!!!HA!
        Enjoy your daily reading sessions! 😀

      • I know what you mean, Laura. I never order clothes online–especially jeans. I have to go to the store and try them on. That way I can see if they really fit. 🙂

        It’s time for me to restock my bathroom shelves. 😀

  7. No reading material in our bathrooms . . . unless I’m sick and expect to be in there for awhile. On that rare occasion, I might bring in a paperback.

    In general, I’m in and out in a flash ~ no time to read more than a sentence or two.

  9. I’ve had to curtail my bathroom reading because there’s only one bathroom and at least two people needing to use it. My son, however, continues to read in the bathroom even though it’s the only one and his partner is not happy. She insists that if he keeps it up, they’ll have to look for an apartment with two bathrooms and he’ll have to trim his book budget.

  10. I occasionally take a book to read in the bath-but I don’t get too far into it because I don’t really feel comfortable enough to read. Im not one for soaking long. I’ve yet to try reading in the shower 🙂

  11. I don’t like reading in the bathroom because I get cramps. I don’t have anything to read in my bathroom. But I would go for glossy magazines and very light reading like short poems and short short-stories if I did. How long do you spend reading? 10 mins? 20?

  12. My bathroom reading is confined to lounging in a tub of hot- as- I- can- stand- it water. So I choose old grubby paperbacks that are only autographed by time and mistreatment. For a while now, I’ve been treading through The Brothers Karamozov, which I must have “sort of” read in grad school because it does have my pencil notes in the margins—as well as a long list of dates in the inside cover where apparently I had a goal of 46 pages a day. Like tablespoons of medicine. (I know that is a shameful description). Even though I’ve been told numerous times that it is one of the most profound books ever written, I can never recall a thing about it. So for a while now (a couple of months at least), I’ve been slogging through it in the tub and it’s okay if it gets a few water marks.

    • That made me laugh, Martha! I can admit that I never read read it. Instead of that one, we read Crime and Punishment when we discussed Russian history. (That and works by Tolstoy.) I keep thinking that I need to read it, simply because several people have brought it up in the last year or so.

  13. I learned many decades ago to take reading material with me everywhere I go just in case I have to wait. Well, sometimes even in the bathroom, I have to wait.

  14. I do not practice reading in the bathroom but I have memories of old newspapers that could be found in the bathroom of my grandparents and which were for me real lessons of history or old Catalogs, vestiges of a disappeared civilization! 🙂
    Love ❤
    Michel

  15. Thankfully my husband and I have separate bathrooms so (1) no one needs to wait and (2) I don’t have his overflowing magazine rack threatening to fall into the waste bin ;). I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading in the bathroom. I used to use that time to peruse catalogs (clothing, skin care, Levenger) but these days catalogs rarely make it past our recycling bin. If I have a few minutes to spare, I might do a jigsaw puzzle on my iPad or some other game that lets my mind lull for a bit. Unfortunately, I have only a shower stall so no languid readings in the tub ;( [Oh, my husband tends to carry issues of the New Yorker, Harper’s, various astronomy magazines into his bathroom where they disappear forever.]

    • Ha ha! That’s what happens to my magazines! I finally cleared out some of the older issues (like from 2013; yes, 2013). Now my bathroom stash is nice and lean. It’s time to add some new magazines. An alumni newsletter came the other day. I placed it in the rack in the bathroom. 🙂

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