Books for the Bathroom

Focus for this List: Yes, there are, in fact, books in every room of my house. This list is for the bookshelf that also holds spare toilet paper.  (Note: this is not a list of acceptable substitutes for toilet paper -- that's a different list!)  Now, admittedly, the criteria for this list are a bit vague. When we moved, however, I found that certain books just cry out to spend time in the bathroom, being read only occasionally, and in small doses.  What's in YOUR bathroom bookshelf?

Books in our Bathroom at the Moment:
1.  The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel, by Joshua Piven & David Borgenicht
I've got several books from this series; when I was single, the version in the bathroom was this one.  You know, just in case!

2.  Edna St. Vincent Millay: Collected Lyrics
This was a library sale treasure, and I'm enjoying finding new gems.

3.  How to Shit in the Woods, Second Edition: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art, by Kathleen Meyer
Mr. Turkey is an Eagle Scout. Until we were married, I'd never camped outside a day in my life. So, how does a confirmed bookworm confront such a new situation? Yup, we buy books and read them. This one I found particularly well-written. It's earnest tone is endearing, and truly, this is information we should all be passingly familiar with. (Sorry, pardon the pun.)

4.  Strain Your Brain: Power Puzzles (Official Mensa Puzzle Book), by Ivan Moscovich
This is quite a colorful, and mind-bending puzzle book. Good for long visits!

Books That Have Since Migrated Elsewhere:
5.  They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases (The Writer's Studio), by Howard Rheingold
This is truly one of my favorite linguistic books. As an exchange student, I noticed how language shapes thought, and vice versa, this book goes one step further and tries to explain such concepts as we do not have in English.  Yes, Gemütlichkeit is in there!  Now shelved in linguistics.

6.  The Quotable South: A Compendium of Eclectic Quotes About the South, compiled by Al Dixon
It's colorful, and it's funny. And then I lived in Raleigh for 4 years. Now I'm not sure if it's funny or tragic, but I know that it's true. Now shelved between linguistics and the travel books.

7. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by ZZ Packer
An interesting collection of short stories, this is an enjoyable read. Now shelved in non-fiction.

8.  It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The Best (?) from the Bulwer-Lytton Contest, compiled by Scott Rice
"The funniest opening sentences from the worst novels never written."  The bathroom will echo with your howls of laughter and groans of disgust!  Do yourself a favor and click on the link in the Author's Name, and enjoy!  Now shelved next to my literary classics.

9.  Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini, by Mark Leyner, and Billy Goldberg, M.D.
Ok, so the questions and answers are interesting, but more amusing are the transcribed chat messages back and forth between the two authors.  Now shelved in nonfiction.

10.  Not Quite What I Was Planning, Revised and Expanded Deluxe Edition: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by Rachel Fershleiser, & Larry Smith
They read like haiku -- intense, and short.  (Now shelved in nonfiction, but it may wander back into the bathroom. Writing this blog helps me remember all of my treasures!)

Note: if I had more space, I'd totally lobby for this bathtub.  As it is, I can only dream!  Click here to find the website where I found this treasure!  :)

Nonfiction for Those Who Love Fiction

1.  Lawrence Gonzales: Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
2.  Stanley Bing: Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation
3.  Olivia Judson: Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex
4.  Gavin De Becker: The Gift of Fear (and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence)
5.  Karen Pryor: Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training
6.  Po Bronson: "Why Do I Love These People?": Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family
7.  Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
8.  Dr. William Maples: Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist
9.  Lynne Truss: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
10. Eric Weiner: The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

Focus for this list:
I don't consider myself an avid reader of nonfiction.  Yet, I find myself drawn to nonfiction when flying.  These are the books that not only kept me happily absorbed during an airline ordeal, they're also the books I recommended to others once I'd touched down!