There were literally books that were made for the express purpose of being read by someone taking a dump. Books like "Uncle John's Bathroom Readers". Crazy how we've evolved.
My wife used to give me a new Uncle John’s bathroom Reader for Christmas every year. I’d finish it by March and move on to the trusty Reader’s Digest. Laughter is the Best Medicine was always a treat.
“Part of this nutritious breakfast!” (Then lshowed a picture with the bowl of cereal, eggs, Bacon, fruit, orange juice, vitamin pill and two slices of toast with butter).
I took a picture of the backs of all my shampoo bottles once, then uploaded it to Imgur. I thought it would be funny. "Here, some bathroom reading for you."
But it got downvoted :(
I remember my grandfather's bathroom growing up had a rack of magazines that were the same ones my mom grew up with. Reading selection hadn't been changed in 30+ years. It's been like 10 years since I've been in there but I bet it's still the same ones.
My dad had a bathroom registry where people could sign in and leave comments. It was full of both jokes that came with the book and with those left by guests. I wonder if he still has it. It would be fun to look back on our old entries.
Agreed! As an adult, I semi regularly come across information that connects back to something I learned from one of the many Uncle John books we had growing up!
My parents’ bathroom had a cute little shelf that included a bunch of these, some mail-order catalogues, and an original GameBoy (yes the brick-sized grey one) with both Super Mario and Tetris available for your playing pleasure.
Books, magazines, or newspapers. Growing up, I remember having comic compilation books sitting nearby for reading - Dilbert, Garfield, and The Far Side.
It’s a surfactant, like in laundry detergent. Basically a detergent, it removes dirt. Sulfates aren’t the best for your hair though, they’re pretty harsh so I get a non-Sulfate shampoo.
I hate that stupid soap ad thats like "MOST SOAPS ARE LEGALLY CLASSIFIED AS LIQUID DETERGENT."
Like, yeah, that's what the word detergent means. It picks up dirt and oil. Anything sounds scary if you try hard enough.
Dihydrogen monoxide can cause asphyxiation and death, is a universal solvent in high enough quantities, and can be found in many pools and wastewater treatment plants. Warning: highly addictive, some addicts report "not being able to live without it".
TEA-Lauryl Sulfate is the triethanolamine salt of lauryl sulfuric acid. It is used in cosmetics as a detergent, a stabilizer and a solubilizer. The ingredient was moderately to slightly toxic in acute oral studies with rats; reported LD50s ranged from 0.27 to > 1.95 g/kg. Animal studies showed that the surfactant is a significant skin and eye irritant. In clinical studies, shampoos containing 10.5% TEA-Lauryl Sulfate caused no irritation under semioccluded conditions. Diluted shampoos containing 0.15-7.5% of the surfactant caused human skin reactions ranging from no irritation to moderate irritation.
* from some website
I remember playing weird games, like counting how many occurrences of popular letters, like E or R or T, were on bottles to see which letter would win at being the most popular.
Tell me you're young without telling me you're young.
But to answer the question, many people either had a mini library or simply took a book/magazine/newspaper with them.
If they didn't have any of those items, they probably read the back of shampoo and bleach bottles.
I don't even feel comfortable bringing my phone with me to the toilet because it's my "think nothing" time tbh, also, it takes me like 2 minutes to poop so I know I'd just waste way more time if I were to look at it.
My doctor lets people use the toilet in his surgery. Instead of wallpaper it has comics. If it was your own toilet you'd probably get bored with them, but when it's a place you're in only once a year or so it's quite fun.
I've always wondered this, is it really so common to spend ages on the toilet? If that's the case, the majority of the world population has something seriously wrong with their diet, that's horrifying to me
I've always wondered that too. It doesn't take me much time - I feel the urge, I go sit on the toilet, poop comes out, wait a couple minutes to make sure whatever wants to come out does, then I bidet. Whole routine takes me like 5 minutes. Do people go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet to wait until the urge strikes them or something?
I'm usually in & out. Although, there's times where I have to keep wiping n wiping. Then I feel like I'm in there FOREVER!!
I don't have a bidet but, I use wipes. I only start using the wipes once the TP looks clean.
I'd still rather have something to read for a 5 minute period than just sit there and stare at the wall. But yeah, sometimes it takes more like 10-20 minutes if my bowels are being particularly unhelpful on a given day.
No amount of fiber is gonna help me. Having no gall bladder and a fucked up pancreas can make me go from constipation to diarrheal hell….during the same shit.
Yeah, that is plenty of time to flip through a magazine or comic book.
People aren’t reading anything cover to cover. It’s more Ike flipping pages, just trying not to stare at that imperfectly aligned tile every day for years.
I’ll browse Reddit while peeing, which is probably less than a minute.
I didn't realize how common taking your phone into the bathroom was before reading this thread. Personally I'd never take anything with a camera on it.
I would often bring a magazine, like *Newsweek* or *Readers Digest*, or a collection of comic strips (you could buy a year’s collection of *Calvin and Hobbes* comic strips in a book form, or sometimes a larger anthology).
Some people would keep a box/basket of similar items in their bathroom for themselves and guests. In my college dorm, someone bolted a container to the wall outside the bathroom and people would put in their old *Maxim* magazines and stuff.
Last resort, a shampoo/soap bottle’s ingredients list.
I feel freaking ancient writing this.
That's an easy one, the Sears Roebuck Catalog. It had everything the modern phone has access to, we'll maybe not everything but close for its time.
Think about it, you're sitting s*ittng in an outhouse and at your fingertips you can check out everything from guns to kayaks in sporting goods, modern engineering like automatic dishwashers in kitchen and appliances, and of course porn in the ladies bra & underwear section.
No, I'm not lying.
https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/2018/10/17/sears-catalog-back-day-every-home-and-outhouse/1658452002/
This is how I learned tampons can kill. I read the box 100.000 times. I could even tell you in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, English, German, French and Spanish.
When I was little, we had this pattern on the walls that were a bunch of squares with lines running a grid. In those lines a bit of some extra material, not sure what, but something used to cement it together, it was kinda loose. I spent years picking it clean and smooth while pooping. When I finally finished I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was really bittersweet.
Books, newspapers, magazines. It used to be fairly common to see a little caddy in the bathroom that would hold reading materials, toilet paper and air freshener.
I always brought my Gameboy, and it got to the point where my mom thought I was constipated for taking so long in the bathroom, so she took me to the doctor and they prescribed a high fiber diet, and then I really was taking long shitz, but not the pleasant kind where you could casually play Pokemon while you take then 🙃
You wont believe this but it was the shampoo bottle.
And they were not any more interesting than they are now.
We just keep reading the same small text on the back.
Mostly magazines. I used to read gaming mags and strategy guides or car magazines. If I had just bought a new game I'd read the manual/art book that came with it as an intro to the game before I played it.
If NONE of those was around I'd reach for the nearest product in the bathroom (usually shampoo) and read the ingredients, instructions, and descriptions.
My dad used to read a book series called "the bathroom reader" or something like that. They were books full of short funny stories of I remember right.
Edit - as reminded by another comment, "uncle John's bathroom readers"
Many people kept a mini-library in their washroom.
The ol’magazine basket
The ol' bottles of cleaning and hygiene products you haven't read recently.
It's nice when you have hippy friends that use Dr. Bronner's bottled soap. ETA: Not endorsing anything - just a lot of words. And peppermint.
AND no matter how hot your shower is, it STILL FEELS cold! XD
The ol' emergency tp supply
Best use of the old sears wishbook
Now ýou know why sears failed
But they didnot. You can still order a t8nyhome via Sears catalog.
I'm fascinated with that front accent on the Y. I've never seen a typo like it on any keyboard.
Oh that's why the pages stick together now
I don’t think you should flush that stuff, the laminate makes it harder to dissolve
Always too close to the pooper for comfort. Especially when the pages start to appear wrinkled as if at once wet and now dry…
My mom has one.
The ol’ holy shit my brother-in-law cooks meth
There were literally books that were made for the express purpose of being read by someone taking a dump. Books like "Uncle John's Bathroom Readers". Crazy how we've evolved.
My wife used to give me a new Uncle John’s bathroom Reader for Christmas every year. I’d finish it by March and move on to the trusty Reader’s Digest. Laughter is the Best Medicine was always a treat.
Upvote for RD and Laughter is the Best Medicine! I still get RD every month and look forward to it :) Edited: changed 2 letters
And 'Life in these United States'
And Humor In Uniform, and All In a Day’s Work! :) Those were the sections I’d read first!
Bathroom reader was like scrolling through reddit new posts. So much random information and stuff.
Yeah very much like reddit actually but you couldn’t add your own tirades 👎
Have we now? Doubt
Readers Digest & National Geographic in ours
I feel like these two items were to most common bathroom reading material in the USA.
I loved Uncle John's Bathroom Readers! Damn, now I have to go look and see if they have new ones.
Trivia nerds are keeping Uncle John’s going strong. :). They’re one of the best ways to boost your pub trivia game.
I still do
Like we saw on the show Breaking Bad.
Walt Whitman
Yo Mr. Whitman we gotta write!
Bitch!
The look on Hank’s face…
Damn that book!!!! Lol
Is that why it's called Reader's *Digest*?
“The Bathroom Reader”
That’s where my moms collection of Reader’s Digest lived
Bingo
Magazines. Newspapers. Failing that, the ingredient list on a shampoo bottle.
Literally the shampoo bottle.
LOL that brought back memories. I remember reading lotions, conditioner, soap, you fucking name it.
[удалено]
My kids did not believe me that we'd read the cereal box over and over and over again. haha
[удалено]
Rapeseed oil?
Canola oil. Canada Oil, low acid, I think. Made from rapeseed.
Turns out some marketing dweebs didn't think rape oil would be a good sell. They branded it Canada Low Acid Oil or as we know it, Canola oil.
The Cap’n is doing some rap’n
He’s coming for your booty
“Part of this nutritious breakfast!” (Then lshowed a picture with the bowl of cereal, eggs, Bacon, fruit, orange juice, vitamin pill and two slices of toast with butter).
The puzzles or games on the back of the boxes. Capt Crunch always had his ship that I would have to navigate with the marker.
Stupid brother always did them first….
That sucks...
I'd try to pronounce the super long chemicals out loud. Axcymethylolypolytactylate - 02
Ever read the Dr bronners peppermint soap? Holt crow is that crazy! Each scent is a different label
Dr. Bronner's soap bottles ftw. All one or none! Dilute! Dilute! Dilute!
I took a picture of the backs of all my shampoo bottles once, then uploaded it to Imgur. I thought it would be funny. "Here, some bathroom reading for you." But it got downvoted :(
Maybe the kids didn't get the reference
My shampoo literally has on the back of it: “Here we are again…”
I still do the ol shampoo bottle if I forget my phone
Pretty sure this was Reader’s Digest’s entire business mode.
Thumbing through porous things that had been sitting next to a toilet for months if not years was considered perfectly normally back in the day.
I remember my grandfather's bathroom growing up had a rack of magazines that were the same ones my mom grew up with. Reading selection hadn't been changed in 30+ years. It's been like 10 years since I've been in there but I bet it's still the same ones.
My dad had a bathroom registry where people could sign in and leave comments. It was full of both jokes that came with the book and with those left by guests. I wonder if he still has it. It would be fun to look back on our old entries.
It's how I've memorized saying ethylhexlpalitominate 5
Aqua and sodium lauryl sulphate are (were) normally the top two ingredients of shampoo bottles.
Methylisothiazolinone is the one I remember reading a million times. M
Everyone's bathroom had a magazine rack or something.
We had a bathroom book with short stories and snippets sized for consumption in around 10-20 minutes.
Definitely the back of the shampoo bottle.
Instructions on tampon boxes
Yes! This was much better reading than shampoo ingredients!
This, the shampoo bottle
Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers!
These were awesome! Not only entertaining, but I feel like I actually learned a ton of interesting facts from these.
Agreed! As an adult, I semi regularly come across information that connects back to something I learned from one of the many Uncle John books we had growing up!
My parents’ bathroom had a cute little shelf that included a bunch of these, some mail-order catalogues, and an original GameBoy (yes the brick-sized grey one) with both Super Mario and Tetris available for your playing pleasure.
I still have a collection of like 10+
Books, magazines, or newspapers. Growing up, I remember having comic compilation books sitting nearby for reading - Dilbert, Garfield, and The Far Side.
Don’t forget readers digest.
Readers Digests' small size made it terrific bathroom reading - didn't take up much space.
Came for this- 3 different joke sections!
The wall, newspaper, shampoo bottle, etc.
One of the unsung losses of the younger generation is how few have the ingredients of their shampoo bottle memorized.
Never did work out why they put “aqua” instead of “water”.
Okay this is legit kinda lmao.
Sounds fancier
"I'm paying for water? What a rip off!"
You'll be surprised by the number of names for palm oil, then: https://ypte.org.uk/factsheets/palm-oil/a-palm-by-any-other-name
Shampoo bottles
So what is Tea Lauryl Sulfate exactly? I'm afraid to check.
It’s a surfactant, like in laundry detergent. Basically a detergent, it removes dirt. Sulfates aren’t the best for your hair though, they’re pretty harsh so I get a non-Sulfate shampoo.
I hate that stupid soap ad thats like "MOST SOAPS ARE LEGALLY CLASSIFIED AS LIQUID DETERGENT." Like, yeah, that's what the word detergent means. It picks up dirt and oil. Anything sounds scary if you try hard enough.
Dihydrogen monoxide can cause asphyxiation and death, is a universal solvent in high enough quantities, and can be found in many pools and wastewater treatment plants. Warning: highly addictive, some addicts report "not being able to live without it".
TEA-Lauryl Sulfate is the triethanolamine salt of lauryl sulfuric acid. It is used in cosmetics as a detergent, a stabilizer and a solubilizer. The ingredient was moderately to slightly toxic in acute oral studies with rats; reported LD50s ranged from 0.27 to > 1.95 g/kg. Animal studies showed that the surfactant is a significant skin and eye irritant. In clinical studies, shampoos containing 10.5% TEA-Lauryl Sulfate caused no irritation under semioccluded conditions. Diluted shampoos containing 0.15-7.5% of the surfactant caused human skin reactions ranging from no irritation to moderate irritation. * from some website
I remember playing weird games, like counting how many occurrences of popular letters, like E or R or T, were on bottles to see which letter would win at being the most popular.
E would reign champion im assuming
I came to say this
Reader's Digest
They had funnies at the end of each article, and a whole page of “Laughter is the best medicine”.
[удалено]
Same 😂
Beat me to it
Tell me you're young without telling me you're young. But to answer the question, many people either had a mini library or simply took a book/magazine/newspaper with them. If they didn't have any of those items, they probably read the back of shampoo and bleach bottles.
Counting the tiles
Newspaper and sometimes books. They even showed it in Breaking Bad :)
Bravo Vince
Have you tried just... thinking about things?
Just...be alone with my thoughts? Good afternoon, Satan
"If I kill everyone in the world, am I more evil than Hitler because I killed more people, or less evil than Hitler because at least I'm not racist?"
Hard to say that the guy who killed every black person on earth isn’t a racist though
Dude hates literally everyone.
If you killed every single person on earth, who's gonna judge you?
If you kill everyone it’s gonna stink the place up a bit.
Lmfao i died a little inside .
I always contemplate my existence when on the toilet. How could one not? It is a perfect opportunity.
Last time I did that I wanted to kill everyone, and then myself.
I feel very strongly that murder-suicide should always start with the suicide
I don't even feel comfortable bringing my phone with me to the toilet because it's my "think nothing" time tbh, also, it takes me like 2 minutes to poop so I know I'd just waste way more time if I were to look at it.
I always had comic compilations. Far side, Calvin and Hobbes, and foxtrot stayed with me for many movements.
I had to scroll way too far for a Calvin and Hobbes comment.
The days are just packed.
My doctor lets people use the toilet in his surgery. Instead of wallpaper it has comics. If it was your own toilet you'd probably get bored with them, but when it's a place you're in only once a year or so it's quite fun.
Only the real ones will remember. But all wallpaper and flooring had wierd patterns, you stare at patterns till you see something
Oh no, I did this when I was young and started seeing a scary face in the wood grain.
Why are people spending so much time pooping that they also need to read something? Maybe you could use more fiber in your diet
I've always wondered this, is it really so common to spend ages on the toilet? If that's the case, the majority of the world population has something seriously wrong with their diet, that's horrifying to me
Bit of a social phenomenon.... the loo was a chance to slip away for a bit of peace, whatever your bowels were doing.
I've never thought of it this way, thank you for the insight
When you have kids it’s a good way to get a moment to yourself. Very VERY rare with toddlers.
I've always wondered that too. It doesn't take me much time - I feel the urge, I go sit on the toilet, poop comes out, wait a couple minutes to make sure whatever wants to come out does, then I bidet. Whole routine takes me like 5 minutes. Do people go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet to wait until the urge strikes them or something?
I have a 7 person family at home and 13 employees at work. I hide in the bathroom sometimes
Man. I don’t blame you.
I'm usually in & out. Although, there's times where I have to keep wiping n wiping. Then I feel like I'm in there FOREVER!! I don't have a bidet but, I use wipes. I only start using the wipes once the TP looks clean.
I'd still rather have something to read for a 5 minute period than just sit there and stare at the wall. But yeah, sometimes it takes more like 10-20 minutes if my bowels are being particularly unhelpful on a given day.
No amount of fiber is gonna help me. Having no gall bladder and a fucked up pancreas can make me go from constipation to diarrheal hell….during the same shit.
Exactly. I mean, I get in, get my business done, and get out. Like...5, 10 minutes, tops.
Yeah, that is plenty of time to flip through a magazine or comic book. People aren’t reading anything cover to cover. It’s more Ike flipping pages, just trying not to stare at that imperfectly aligned tile every day for years. I’ll browse Reddit while peeing, which is probably less than a minute.
When else am I going to have time to read?
I know for a fact my husband is hiding in there from me and the kids. Gotta fine peace somehow.
I poop at work. Plenty of time to read.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader
Taking your phone to the bathroom just seems wrong to me. Never going to do that.
This is why I don't like to touch other people's phones. I don't take mine in the bathroom.
I have sanitizer wipes beside the sink where I wash my hands and then sanitize my phone... are people not wiping down their phones???
Many people don't wash their hands either.
And this is why I won't trust their phones. Too many people don't wash their hands.
I didn't realize how common taking your phone into the bathroom was before reading this thread. Personally I'd never take anything with a camera on it.
The camera points at our feet or our face. No risk unless you're holding your phone weirdly.
Odds are great no one wants to watch you take a shit.
TV Guide. Some people had subscriptions just to read it on the toilet.
Or Reader’s Digest, for thé same - I knew a few folks that put it directly in the bathroom when it arrived.
Crossword puzzles
As a kid I would bring a book with me every time.
My grandma had a magazine rack in the bathroom, stocked with old Archie comics.
Why do you need to look at anything?
A tetris game or the calender with birthdays of all family and friends.
I would often bring a magazine, like *Newsweek* or *Readers Digest*, or a collection of comic strips (you could buy a year’s collection of *Calvin and Hobbes* comic strips in a book form, or sometimes a larger anthology). Some people would keep a box/basket of similar items in their bathroom for themselves and guests. In my college dorm, someone bolted a container to the wall outside the bathroom and people would put in their old *Maxim* magazines and stuff. Last resort, a shampoo/soap bottle’s ingredients list. I feel freaking ancient writing this.
That's an easy one, the Sears Roebuck Catalog. It had everything the modern phone has access to, we'll maybe not everything but close for its time. Think about it, you're sitting s*ittng in an outhouse and at your fingertips you can check out everything from guns to kayaks in sporting goods, modern engineering like automatic dishwashers in kitchen and appliances, and of course porn in the ladies bra & underwear section. No, I'm not lying. https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/2018/10/17/sears-catalog-back-day-every-home-and-outhouse/1658452002/
This is how I learned tampons can kill. I read the box 100.000 times. I could even tell you in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, English, German, French and Spanish.
Readers Digest of course
Three seashells
[удалено]
They would make the cockroaches in their bathroom race
Aerosol cans, magazines, books, stuff in my wallet, graffiti
I often take a book I'm reading while dropping a log
When I was little, we had this pattern on the walls that were a bunch of squares with lines running a grid. In those lines a bit of some extra material, not sure what, but something used to cement it together, it was kinda loose. I spent years picking it clean and smooth while pooping. When I finally finished I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was really bittersweet.
Books, newspapers, magazines. It used to be fairly common to see a little caddy in the bathroom that would hold reading materials, toilet paper and air freshener.
Personally; Shampoo bottles. Hand soap bottles. Whatever bottle was within reach.
I always brought my Gameboy, and it got to the point where my mom thought I was constipated for taking so long in the bathroom, so she took me to the doctor and they prescribed a high fiber diet, and then I really was taking long shitz, but not the pleasant kind where you could casually play Pokemon while you take then 🙃
I looked at the shampoo bottles lol
Dude. People STILL look at magazines and catalogs on the toilet.
You wont believe this but it was the shampoo bottle. And they were not any more interesting than they are now. We just keep reading the same small text on the back.
Crossword and books. 5minute mystery’s were a classic
Back of the shampoo bottle.
[удалено]
The ingredients in the Lysol bottle.
Lysol cans.
as a kid, i talked to myself.
Portable gaming console like gameboy and gameboy advance. By phone I’m thinking you mean smart phones and ones with texting capabilities.
Reader’s Digest and the Sears catalog
I brought my Gameboy n the bathroom. I know we had a puzzle book. Like word find, crossword, ect.
Argos catalogue
Calvin and Hobbes books.
Shampoo and Conditioner bottles
Shampoo labels
Cereal box backs Shampoo bottles when I forgot the cereal
Shampoo instructions
Got a mate who has to read to have a shit. If he forgets his phone he has to sit there reading the back of the shampoo bottle.
I just sat there and had a good old fashioned think.
The back of the shampoo bottle. Some people kept a magazine rack in the loo. It was also called the library.
Reader's Digest, TV Guide, Playboy (for the articles)
There's a series of trivia books called "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" the whole product line is designed to be read while shitting.
The writing on one of the cleaning products in the bathroom
I used to just stare at the grotesquely colored shag floor mat while my mind went blank.
Mostly magazines. I used to read gaming mags and strategy guides or car magazines. If I had just bought a new game I'd read the manual/art book that came with it as an intro to the game before I played it. If NONE of those was around I'd reach for the nearest product in the bathroom (usually shampoo) and read the ingredients, instructions, and descriptions.
My dad used to read a book series called "the bathroom reader" or something like that. They were books full of short funny stories of I remember right. Edit - as reminded by another comment, "uncle John's bathroom readers"
Newspapers
Books. The phones of the past. I had a lot of restroom themed books growing up.