Uncle John's 4-Ply Bathroom Reader (Bathroom Reader's Institute) [Hardcover]

Bathroom Reader's Institute (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2003

Originally published in 4 separate volumes at a cost of $40.00. Now in one hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 893 pages
• Publisher: Barnes and Noble Books (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760738092
• ISBN-13: 978-0760738092
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,505,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since 1988, the Bathroom Readers' Institute has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and anywhere else, for that matter). Our crack staff works year-round to bring you the publishing industry's most absorbing anthologies of history, humor, origins, flops, fads, quotes, puzzles, kids' stuff, and more. Today, with more than 11 million books in print and a membership base topping 40,000 loyal readers, the movement begat by Uncle John is stronger than ever. In fact, the "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" series in the longest-running, most popular series of its kind in the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a new book, November 6, 2010

By 

Diane Lanier "history and trivia nut" (Huntsville, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Uncle John's 4-Ply Bathroom Reader (Hardcover)

I felt cheated when I ordered this book. It does NOT contain any new pages-just a compilation of four books. Buyer--read the fine print.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 893 pages of pure fun, December 24, 2006

By 

Robbie De Clercq (Gent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncle John's 4-Ply Bathroom Reader (Bathroom Reader's Institute) (Hardcover)

What can you say about Uncle John's bathroom reader ? It is everything you always wanted !

The 4-ply bathroom reader brings the first 4 volumes of Uncle John's bathroom readers in one book. Interesting facts about literature, entertainment, humor, education, trivia, science, history and so much more. As always there are short, medium and long stories.

Here are some of the contents:
- the origins of common words and phrases
- the 7 wonders of the world
- elvis's letters to Nixon
- the curse of King Tut
- bizarre lawsuits
- strange deaths

Everything you always wanted to know and are bound to forget is in this book. 5 stars +

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look back into Uncle John's history, November 23, 2010

By 

velvetsack (Gillette, WY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncle John's 4-Ply Bathroom Reader (Hardcover)

As is mentioned in another review, this is not new material. This is the first four Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books, published under one cover. The books are exactly as they were originally published: for example, there are several present-tense references to the Soviet Union throughout the book. This usually isn't a problem, but there were at least a few times when I felt a little editing would have gone a long way. This is especially true of the brainteasers and quizzes, where the answers are found at the end of each book. The numbers of the answer pages are not noted in the articles themselves, so you'll have to flip around to find the end of each book or go back to the table of contents. In addition, sometimes there are references in the books to pages in previous editions contained within this volume that don't match up.

It's interesting to see how much of the Bathroom Reader formula Uncle John had established in these first few books. If you've read the other books in the series, you know pretty much what to expect as far as the types of articles that are in here. However, the articles are noticeably more sparse in information and are shorter than they would be (and in some cases have been, when the topics have been revisited) in newer Bathroom Readers. Also there's kind of a lot of "You're never gonna believe this!"-type editorializing that I find annoying and that I'm glad they've since done away with.

In short, if you're new to Uncle John's books or haven't read the rest of the series, get the other books first. If you don't have the first four books, complete your collection with this.