Bathroom Reading

Oh, the thoughts we think. A friend's comment on Facebook recently, about bathroom reading material, has led me to ponder the matter further. Since my husband and I have been married, forty years in August, our bathrooms have never been without literature. Never. (Actually, there is really NO room in our house without something to read...but that's another story.)

Now, my friend mentions that her bathroom literature includes short, quick reads, like "Reader's Digest". A "must", I agree. Magazines with short, easy-and-quick-to-read articles must always be included in the bathroom library. I have always kept a bathroom magazine-basket. Our bathrooms would never be complete without them. The baskets will change as to color and/or style - but there will always be one - full of colorful magazines.

When we were living in France, and had no email or Facebook, we received cards and letters from family and friends in the states. Mail. REAL mail. In envelopes. This mail would often include newspaper clippings - and these were wonderful for bathroom reading. They were added to the bathroom reading basket, and enjoyed at leisure ... even by our French visitors who could read English.

However, OUR bathroom reading material includes books, too. Short-story books, books with topics that can be covered in one chapter ... photo books ... joke books. "How-to" books. Amazing what you can learn in one sitting from a "how-to" book! There are also "regular" books, with regular chapters. Fiction. Biography. There are, after all, bathroom visits that sometimes last for a chapter or two. And, you can always pick up where you left off the next time you come in. Oh, no ... do not overrule "regular" books in the bathroom.

My bathroom library can change from one day to the next. I may become so engrossed in reading something while hanging out in the "facility", that I carry it out with me to finish it. Or, my husband may be so taken with something he is reading that he will carry it IN with him, and leave it behind when he exits. When our four children were still at home, our bathroom library contents changed often. We had so much variety then ... sometimes I still miss seeing those "Little Golden" books, or the comic books, or the school texts (yes, you CAN study in the bathroom!) in our bathroom library.

At any rate, let me say that I am not a real stickler about what reading material is in our bathroom ... I am just adamant that it IS there.

Allow me to share with you our current bathroom library selections (and my husband will want any readers to know that these are his wife's choices). Right now, sitting neatly on top of the toilet tank (a convenient place) are a variety of titles (I shall include authors/editors in case something strikes your fancy):

1. STYLE DE PROVENCE - by: Angelika Taschen

2. TUMBLEWEED HOTEL - ANGELS IN DISGUISE - by: George Whitman (owner
of the little Paris bookshop, "Shakespeare and Company" ... the people in the book
have all, at one time or another, spent some time in the bookshop. We've been to
the bookshop - quite original and interesting.)

3. ANGELS,MIRACLES AND MESSAGES - edited: Guideposts

4. ROCKING CHAIR READER - edited: Helen Kay Polaski

5. Ooops! A magazine ... a 1947 (my husband's birth year) Dec. copy of CORONET
magazine

6. POETRY booklet - a pretty, self-made booklet by our daughter Rachel, with some
of her poems - my favorite one in it being, "...but she is not going to be with us
always...", about her grandma

7. GOD'S STORIES - edited: Donna Douglas

8. THE TRAIL TO PROGRESS - by: Herbert Jones - a small paperback, a history
of Easton, Kansas

9. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY SOUL - by: Jack Canfield,
Mark Victor Hanses, Patty Auberg, and Nancy Mitchell Auteo ... of COURSE, there
must be a "Chicken Soup" book there!

10. LOCKED DOORS - FACING THE INNER-CITY CHALLENGE - by: David Dolin

11. TRUE TALES OF OLD-TIME KANSAS - by: David Dary

12. COOKING BY HEART - A DEVOTIONAL COOKBOOK - by: Ruth C. Ikerman ......
a very tiny book - and I'm moving this one back to the kitchen, as I just saw a
good recipe. This often happens with our bathroom books. The "moving", I
mean.

13. LES TRESORS DE LA FOI (TREASURES OF THE FAITH") - by: C. H. Spurgeon

Well, there you have it. Because a friend dared to admit she considers bathroom-reading a necessity ... I felt obligated to stand with her. We bathroom-readers need to stand together on this. Do not back down; or hide in shame. Let our voices be heard: bathroom libraries are a necessity! We spend so much time there. Why shouldn't we be improving our minds, even as we use the "facility" for its intended purpose?

We will!!! We shall use the facility. And we shall READ in the facility. Yes! Bathroom-readers everywhere - STAND UP (well.........when you can) and be heard!!!!

Then sit down and read.