BiblioQueria 20
After wandering around the house today, it has dawned on me that we have books in just about every room in the house. The library (of course), our bedroom, my studio, our computer room, the living room, the kitchen and the basement. And yes, the upstairs bathroom (the downstairs bathroom seems to be used only in desperate emergencies; as of yet it doesn't have that 'sit down and stay awhile' ambiance. Might have something to do with all the spiders that congregate down there).
Ahhh... bathroom reading. I confess that it's a habit that I've never really taken to. But the hubby loves it. So we've got a basket on the floor next the toilet full of mostly his bathroom reads:
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
by Jeremy Narby
Countdown to Apocalypse: A Scientific Exploration of the End of the World
by Paul Halpern
Patently Absurd: The Most Ridiculous Devices Ever Invented
by Christopher Cooper
Hmmm... seems to me that some of those books are anything but relaxing, but it works for him, I guess.
Anyway, even though I'm not a fan of bathroom reading I thought it would be the genteel thing to do to at least provide a bit more variety for any guests who chose to partake in some leisurely reading on the throne. So with that in mind, I purchased the charming little non-political and hopefully non-apocalyptic book The Weather Calendar or A Record of the Weather for Every Day of the Year by Mrs. Henry Head.
The tiny blurb on the back of this tiny book reads:
Taken from letters and diaries from as early as 1506 and writers that include Peyps, Swift, Walpole, Gray, Dorothy Wordsworth and Jane Austen. This day by day account of the weather makes fascinating and compelling reading.
Take, for example, today's date, August 11th:
1774. Don't be brave this month: the weather is already much cooler, and you need not catch cold to prove how intolerable the heat is.
-- Walpole.
My sentiments exactly!
And so my questions to you are...
Are you a bathroom reader? If yes, what books do you have in your bathroom right now?
When called, I will take what I'm reading with me. There are books in the bathroom, but I never look at them. They are:
- Teach Yourself Turkish
- This Is A Bad Time (Bruce Eric Kaplan)
- Eyewitness: Reports from an Art World in Crisis (Jed Perl - the book seems bound for bathrooms)
- The Complete Letter Writer for Gentleman (1890)
- "What Shall I Say?" A Guide to Letter Writing for Ladies (1898)
Posted by: R J Keefe | August 11, 2006 at 06:38 PM
What an interesting collection!
Makes me wonder if sitting on the throne is a bad time to teach yourself Turkish.
Posted by: patricia | August 11, 2006 at 07:15 PM
Hm. I just looked and we also have books in every single room in the house. Although our bathroom tends towards magazines (National Geographic and Smithsonian for me, Linux Journal and other computer mags for dh), I confess I was reading "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown" this morning and "Virginity or Death!" last night.
Our guest bathroom read, which I got at a library booksale for a quarter, is "An Irreverent and Almost Complete Social History of the Bathroom", which is delightful browsing.
Posted by: Sandy | August 14, 2006 at 11:29 AM
Do magazines count? Mostly old New Yorkers.
Posted by: Slimbolala | August 14, 2006 at 02:10 PM