When I was going through some of my old books a couple of days ago, I ran across a book, Big Drops, that while having one of the more hilarious unintentional comedy titles is a book that shows the biggest waterfalls and rapids that a kayaker can go down in the United States. It was also a book that my father, ever the humorist that he is, kept religiously in the bathroom when I was a kid. While he was a semi-professional kayaker at one point in his life, I never thought for one second that the book was there to remind him of the glory years. Anyways, it underscored a greater point and that was that it was the perfect bathroom reading full of short chapters with the only continuity being that it was about rivers and kayaks. So, here’s a list of some great bathroom reading- books that you can pick up time and again without having to reread or even pick a particular page.

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People by Toby Young
This is a book given to me by a friend, which either says a lot about his comic styling or something about my personality. Actually, this was a book that sat on the New York Times best seller list for quite some time and garnered a lot of attention for it’s frank and hilarious subject matter. The author was a writer for a famous magazine in New York City (a Conde Nast publication) with an overbearing habit for getting himself completely drunk and sometimes doing enough cocaine to stop a bear. These forays into the darker parts of life led to some amazingly hilarious confrontations in A-list Hollywood parties as well as killing his job with Nast after a real spell, of his own self-described idiocy. While it wasn’t written as well as I thought it could have been, it is laugh out loud while in the bathroom by yourself funny. And for you relationship people out there, this is one of the few books that both of you will enjoy, laugh at and discuss.

The Future Dictionary of America by Various Authors
A funny and interesting look at the future of American speech as it is currently progressing now. Authors from around the country were asked to make up words that they think will come into circulation in the future and write the word and the definition. While some of the authors did this with some truth, many of the authors took either the tongue-in-cheek route or the flat-out comedy route. It’s a funny, quick read that makes absolutely no sense, which is why you want to read it in the first place. Think of Jeff Foxworthy’s books on rednecks and the Redneck Dictionary and then quickly infuse intelligence.

Life of Reilly by Rick Reilly
One of the great books by one of the great writers of our time. Rick Reilly is a sports columnist and while that detracts from the amount of viewers that see his weekly column in Sports Illustrated, it certainly doesn’t diminish the work. Reilly tackles every topic even remotely related to sports and explores it in a very unique fashion. In this book, a great pick up read, Reilly uses his fantastic sense of humor in parts of the book, his ability to tell even the most gut wrenching stories well and the self depreciating style that makes him such a hit with the common fan. Even if you’re not a sports junkie, Reilly’s is a book worth reading.

Kinky Friedman Series by Kinky Friedman
The series to date has gotten almost up around the 20 mark, so the Kinkster, whose avid readers include Bill Clinton, Willie Nelson and Imus, has obviously produced some interesting books over the past thirty or so years. Friedman, in all of his books, is an amateur private detective in Greenwich Village in New York City. He relies on a group of friends, the Village Irregulars, who serve as Sherlock’s Watson to Friedman as they go around the city, taking breaks in between to attend to their real jobs, and solve murders that have varying degrees of linkage to Kinky himself. As the detecting goes on, Kinky intersperses many of his now famous quotes and mannerisms throughout each book and since these books often have instances where the “Rain Room” (aka the bathroom) comes into play, it was a match made in, well, you know. You need to start with Greenwich Killing Time, Friedman’s first novel, and commence from there.

When You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It by Yogi Berra
Sometimes we wake up in the morning and everything is not all right. The day seems a little worse than usual, your body feels like you slept in a Post Office box and your just plain surly. That’s precisely the time when you need some Yogi in your life and this book is the best cure for what ales you. Yogi is known for his isms and each chapter of this book is entitled with one of his famous lines. The thing that gets lost in the hilarity of the comments is that there is a true underlying meaning to what he’s saying and those meanings remind you why it is never as bad as you think and that the world does give you a bunch of hoops to jump through but when you get to the nuts and bolts of life, it’s not that bad. As some people who are paid enormously for their advice, Yogi Berra is all of the advice I need to keep my head above water. Like I said, everyone can learn from and needs some Yogi in their lives.

Blood Whiskey: The Life And Times of Jack Daniels by Peter Krass
Even though, in my opinion, this book was fairly badly written and the sources that were used were nothing more than a little hearsay, it’s still an interesting story of one of Tennessee’s true pioneers. Of course, if you’re into history, Whiskey, the Civil War or just the matters of building an empire and surviving in the cut-throat early settlement years of this country then this a book for you. Regardless of your reason’s, though, this is a book that is an easy read, that can be dropped and picked up some time later and it is really a glimpse into a side of Tennessee that doesn’t always get much press.

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Like Yogi Berra, Bill Watterson is a cosmic force that doesn’t get the due notice because he writes through cartoons, not exactly the adult’s way of thought, but maybe it should be. A tale of a kid and his toy tiger with the names from two of the more famous philosophers in human history is a strange enough start, but Watterson gets into all of the attributes that make people the current American society and who if you step back for a moment some of things we do as adults looks ludicrous. The cartoons, at least for me, also remind me much of childhood and what it was like to go throw the baseball with a friend, go for a bike ride for no reason and to appreciate those truly exceptional days when work might just have to wait for an extra thirty minutes so I can enjoy it. If you haven’t got time for a little thoughtful humor in your life, then you need to reassess things a little.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The book that brought uproar to baseball… well, before everyone got caught juicing. Moneyball was an idea that statistics, when used properly, could be a forecasting agent for baseball players and teams outcomes. This idea was first employed by the Oakland A’s and GM Billy Beane. The book takes an insider look at the thought process and the team’s season and how the two meshed to create a winner on a shoestring budget. Since the book itself is a collection of stories that add up to a big picture, it’s a great chapter to chapter read with chapters being fascinating enough to be reread.

The Fletch Series by Gregory McDonald
Funny movies come from funny books, at least most of the time. In what became one of the funniest movies to hit the big screen, starring Chevy Chase as Fletch, the books had to overcome a lot in my mind. Being that I didn’t know Fletch was a series was a start and then trying to picture Chase throughout the entire book was burdensome to say the least. But, once you get the movie out of your head, the books stand well all on their own. The chiding humor is there in full force and some of the nuances of Fletch are revealed in greater degree between the covers. Start with Fletch's Fortunes, as it is the book that picks up where the first film left off.

History of Memphis/ History of Tennessee by Dr. Crawford
Two great books written by a true University of Memphis teaching legend and one of the foremost historians of both the city and the state. After taking both of his classes, appropriately named after his two books, it was crystal clear the amount of knowledge he possessed on the subjects and the books that were used in the class (these two books) were enlightening. While the subject matter was a little questionable to me before I got into the class, by the end of the first lecture, I was engrossed. If not for anything else, the History of Memphis is a necessary book for all Memphians because until I took the class I didn’t realized how many historic places I was driving by every day and had no idea.

Harrington On Hold’em by Dan Harrington
This is the ultimate gift for the poker player in your life or if you are currently a poker player, this is the book that will hone your skills. The two book series deals with all of the intricacies of big tournament No Limit Hold’em and how you can play different hands in different points at the tables. One thing that makes it so bathroom friendly are the problems at the end of each chapter. Much like your high school math books, at the end of a chapter, Harrington takes real hands from real tournaments and talks about the right way to play that particular hand.

And, of course…

Big Drops The book that looks at the rivers and kayaking from around the country also is home to some of the finest photographs of those rivers at their mightiest. It’s just one of those books you have laying around that you don’t look at much but at the same time, you don’t want to lose.

All of these books I was able to find online through Google or Amazon searches.