Reading In The Bathroom

Only my husband and I remain at home (unless you count the dog and for the purposes of this article - I do not.) My husband cannot go to the bathroom unless he has something to read in his hand.

Now understand, he and I (and the dog) are the only ones at home and although we like spending time together, we are rarely in the same place at the same time. So when we are together, we still have plenty of privacy. One would not think he would need to take any reading material to the bathroom because he can read out in the open. It's not like he's taking his adult magazines in there, either. (I made him get rid of them years ago.) Nope, he's reading hefty things like Fortune, Money Management, the AARP magazine. This is his form of entertainment and fascination.

It makes a morbid kind of sense - the economy and some of our investments are going into the crapper so he might as well flush them all at the same time he flushes other things.

I don't read quite as much in the bathroom as he does. If I am reading something and I don't wish to stop the flow - as it were - I will take whatever is in my hand and continue reading. So you might find me in the bathroom with a romantic novel because I always have an urgent need to go to the bathroom at the most salacious parts and there is no good reason why a bodily function should keep me from it.

I will also pick up a catalog of some kind (usually knit or yarn related) and take it in there to look it over. I figure if something in one them makes me do a Kegel exercise, it must be something I need to order.

I've also been known to print out articles and place them in a holder for reading later. Handmade News (http://www.handmadenews.org) is a good source for this. I print out some articles I want to read, but I also print out interviews I am setting up with artisans for the site and it's a good chance to read some of them over. (Nothing personal, it's just part of the multi-tasking thing.) I'm not sure they'll want to be associated with that.

Why do people read in the bathroom? I think it's a natural thing and part of our DNA. Our DNA was altered when bathrooms were created. It was no longer the right thing to do to just find a spot outside and take care of business. We needed to create a room and we created the room before we created toilet paper. So, we took in pages from books or newspapers. We had to use reading material because there was nothing else to use. When they invented toilet paper we just kept bringing in the reading material and since we didn't need to use it - we read it.

And we liked it. We read it and there no distractions. We were on to something. And it has remained to this day. It will be here for all days to come, too, I predict. Because the bathroom remains as the last place of privacy - as long as the locks are sturdy - it's made for getting in a little moment of privacy - and some light reading.