Customer Reviews

Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own several Uncle John's books. I was very pleased to get the latest (14th) book in this fantastic series. Like all the previous editions, I loved this book for the amazing amount of information from every possible sphere of knowledge: from the thoughts of Socrates to the the history of the bra, from the origins of the familiar phrases and words to the secret Hitler's files, etc. The weakest point in all these books is a lack of an index. It is quite difficult to find a specific piece of information since the articles are not arranged in any particular order and the table of contents is done by topic and not in alphabetical order. The task of looking up information is getting even harder if one is not sure what book to look in. Recently, it took me quite a long time to find the article on the philosophy of the food display in the supermakets. I believe that a good index would be appreciated by all faithful Uncle John's readers, including me.

I have always enjoyed sitting down to read the BRI's tomes (pity they're not located in Flushing, N.Y.), but I am becoming more and more distracted by and annoyed at the multitude of typographical errors that appear in these books. I have now added to my bathroom magazine rack a highlighter on a string so that I, as a compulsive proofreader, can record for posteriority (oops, a typo) these indicators of the compilers' carelessness. Unfortunately, poor proofreading can undermine the authority of the information presented. The BRI staff should take note of this.

If you're looking for something unique, different, and just a little crazy I'd most certainly suggest Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader. Described as a zany mix of trivia, strange but true stories, hilarious things people just had to and so much more! It's sectioned off into a wide variety of topics and lengths making it a possible reading choice whether you've only got a minute or two or a whole hour (and of course everything in between). Best of all I found all of the different articles equally interesting. Things which I would never even consider reading became personal favorites which I've read again and again. I can say completely honestly that this book actually has something for everyone! Despite the title I found that you can take this book anywhere, which means of course you'll find it evenly "satisfying" on your couch or in bed. Please take the chance to enjoy this fabulous book!

The only reason this book gets four stars instead of the full five is because it is kind of heavy on the typographical errors. They seem noticeable and frequent. Otherwise, this latest installment is awesome!

The Uncle John Bathroom reader books are incredible. I love the little pieces of information on the bottom of every page. I bought my husband & his old roommate a bathroom reader about 5 years ago and have been buying a few every year for all of our bathrooms. My husband can't live without them.

We have quite a few of the Uncle John Bathroom Reader books and love every one of them. I've been told many times how cool it is to have something like that to read when in my bathroom. It's nice that you can read as much or as little as you want and you don't feel like you are missing anything like you do when you read a story on & off like that.

I hate reading... Specially a couple pages at a time while sitting on the John... however this book is awesome... It is perfect for those long sittings and those short sittings... :)

I'm a great fan of the Bathroom Institute books, but with this volume, they are beginning to get a little thin. (It seemed there was a lot of Canadian trivia--interesting for a Canadian but not so much for an American). Hopefully they are taking their time with the next issue to give us material that is more in line with their tradition of great trivia.

I recently received a copy of the book as a gift. This is certainly not the type of book I would buy for myself and reading this volume has not changed that. While mildly amusing and certainly successful in giving me an occasional case of "gluteus circulus" aka buttcheek ring from prolonged sitting, this SUPREMELY SATISFYING edition failed to win me over as a repeat reader. Not that I found that much fault with this book, and I'm sure it has a great following of readers, I just like my mind enhancement non-fiction reading to be a bit more substantial.

I must also point out the flawed editing (or lack thereof) contained here. Typos abound and, while irritating, I can tolerate typos better than I can unsubstantiated material passed down as factual. For example, on page 114 in a short vignette on famous last words, William Bonney (Billy the Kid) is cited. Over a century after his supposed death, there still remains a dispute as to just exactly who lies in Bonney's grave. If we lack conclusive proof that Pat Garrett did in fact, kill Billy the Kid, than how can the publisher say with certainty what his last words were? This is just one example to illustrate that the reader may want to accept the contents with a grain of salt. In fact, the publisher even goes so far as to point out past faux pas' found in previous volumes!

As I mentioned, there is a certain degree of amusement to be found here and the publisher did make a good attempt to include a wide variety of subjects. This is the type of reading Cliff Clavin would have loved. There is certainly water cooler (or neighborhood tavern) knowledge to be gleaned here. I just wouldn't bet the farm on its accuracy.

If you have even spent a little time in your life reading newspapers, magazines, the net, etc you will have seen 99% of these trivia lists and items. Save your money so you can buy a better quality toilet paper.