h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So - I've created a new genre.

What do you have in your loo?

Comics?
A dictionary?
Giles cartoons 1955?
Mad Magazine?
Women's magazines?
Spike Milligan's Pot Boiler?
Porn mags?

Just thought I'd ask. What do you have in your loo? What have you seen in others' loos that you thought was a good idea? What are your top 5 books with very short sections that can be reading at one "sitting"?

My favourite - which I can't plug enough - is Richard Lederer's Anguished English. All that laughing must cure the worst constipation.

A dictionary is fun to leaf through, and various books of general knowledge, IQ tests and quizzes. I keep a selection in circulation.

I always take one of Archer's books in with me.............not to read you understand.

Quizzes are fantastic, many's the happy hour i've spent working it out with a pencil.

But seriously, local history books are always a good bet. You can read about the villages if you're only on a short stop, towns if the job is going to be a bit more lengthy.

I have the Meaning of Liff and a horse ads magazine, plus whatever strange women's mags my flatmate leaves around...

Most of the lit in the bathroom is my partner's. He has time to read while he's doing his business, but I'm rarely in there long enough.

Current titles are: "American Hardcore" (we appear to have a second copy *just* for the bathroom, go figure), "The Dilbert Principle", Evelyn Waugh's "Decline and Fall", a couple copies of the Onion, and some mail order catalogs from a record shop out in California.

We usually have one of the Calvin & Hobbes books, the latest edition of Your Dog magazine and whatever magazine my fiance currently has on the go. It's nice to have a bit of choice!

My dad's downstairs loo is the best - he has a two-foot high pile of books with cartoons, comic quotes and weird facts. Makes you want to linger even when you don't need to!

Deb

We don't have any permanent loo literature, although the fiance usually takes the screwfix or argos catalogue with him

The Argos catalogue? You mean the "great shiny laminated book of dreams" (Bill Bailey - Part Troll)

We have a copy of "The National Inquirer" bought over from the States. Sometimes a Dell catalogue. Er...that's it.

Private Eye, Official Playstation Magazine and, of course, the "Passing Time in the Loo Book".

The latter is a book full of biographies, book precis' and other general trivia of different lengths so you can find one for every occasion.

Schott's Miscellanies
Scenic Walks in the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean (the closest I'll get to actually _doing_ them )
Various comedy cash-ins: 'Men Behaving Badly' book; the 'Young Ones' book; Have I Got News For You and so on.

B

I have never or had the desire to read in the loo, I just want to do the job / poo and get out.

Well, it's good to have a stash. The Meaning of Liff even has a word for the problem:
"Great Wakering (ptcpl. vb.)
Panic which sets in when you badly need to go to the lavatory and cannot make up your mind about which book or magazine to take with you."

I keep my sons old Beanos in there

Bill Bryson's book about words (forget the name)

Book about famous prison break-outs (forget that name, too...)

You might want to eat a bit more roughage.

B

The Vicar Digs In! - Book 7 of Private Eye's St. Albion Parish News. Plus, usually the sunday magazines and possibly a copy of Private Eye or The Spectator.

RF

Meaning of Liff, Famous last words, Last Chance to See, and bluffers guide to the EU.

I did have some bilungual novels in there to encourge the learning of Fr*nch, but they're not a great success.

They do say - people will read anything in the loo. So if your child is having trouble with his times tables, stick a book of them in there

That's right - this morning I was stuck in the men's bathroom and was so desperate I read the diving and economy magazines they had lying around...

We just have lots of 'arty' photos of my flatties moodily lighting a cigarette while crouched under the kitchen table, that's enought to keep anyones eyes occupied, as we're not likely to spend any more than two seconds in our cleaned every 6months or so toilet

That's one of the reasons we've got a men's and a women's bath, although the men do use our shower as they have only a tub with no curtain...

I'm one of only two girls in a house of 12 i love my boys but they're so disgusting! (not that all boys are gross and all girls are clean but you know, theres lots of forgetting to put the seat up)