Uncle John’s Fully Loaded 25th Anniversary Bathroom Reader

A BOOK REVIEW

THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE

Uncle John’s book is big on lists. Most pages have a lot of short, punchy paragraphs with a heading that might draw you in. Or not. The joy of this book is that there’s lots of it and if you don’t care for the stuff on one page you can move right on to the next.

THINGS HERE CAN BE READ IN SHORT BURSTS

Even without the title the fact that each page number is printed inside a picture of a toilet roll makes it quite clear where most of this book is going to be read. I was reading an electronic version, so I can't vouch for the paper quality should you be using it in an emergency situation.

UNCLE JOHN HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR A WHILE

It does say it’s the 25th anniversary edition. There's an introduction that tells you about how the book came about. The important thing is that they have been doing this for long enough to have got it off to a fine art. If you're in the market for book full of interesting snippets to read in the smallest room, this is probably the book for you.

HE STEALS EVERYONE ELSE'S BEST LINES SHAMELESSLY

“I'm 83, and I feel like a 20-year-old, but unfortunately there's never one around." See? Milton Berle said it (and is credited). Uncle John stole it and now I’m stealing it from him. It’s not the way to make great literature, but it means you get a lot of decent one-liners scattered through the book. And when you’ve bought a book specifically to read on the toilet, that seems a pretty good deal.

THERE’S A SURPRISING AMOUNT OF REALLY INTERESTING STUFF

After you’ve read this, you will drive your family to distraction by continually telling them “interesting facts”. Like that one of the editors of Marvel Comics was cremated and had his ashes mixed into comic book ink. There's a little bit of him in every issue of the paperback bind up of one of his final projects, Squadron Supreme.

I THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

How can anyone not love this book?