The Necessary Room or

the Throne; the Chamber; the Loo; the room …

As George Costanza once said when he was forced to buy a book he had taken into a bookstore bathroom, “I got news for you — if it wasn’t for the toilet, there would be no books.”

<  from the pages of Elle Décoration

Can you believe that there are people out there who don't own books? (blasphemous) And what’s up with those people who only read one book at a time? Most serious bibliophiles enjoy at least two books at once. And another thing, I don't understand people who read a book then either give it away or, OMG (word stuck in throat …. Gasp) - throw it away.

My father, God rest his soul, would say, ‘You’ve read all these books, why are you keeping them?’ That was when I was only 15. I shiver to think what he would say if he could see my library now.

Before my ‘bathroom’ library evolved into what it is today, I would stand in front of my bookshelves studying until I found just the perfect book to take with me while visiting the room. By the time I found one, the feeling to visit the Chamber had passed. ‘What takes you so long in there that it requires a book’ you say? Rhetorical. Right? Don't you love to read when you take a bubble bath? Duh.

The Necessary Room in my house is home to a precarious stack of books: Robert Crais; Stephen Donaldson; Julia Child; Lord Dunsany, and magazines. As a matter of fact, just recently the Dude installed a magazine rack for me, right beside the toilet. I’m so classy. Currently, the magazine rack holds copies of Sunset; Alaska Today; Oregon Coast; and there are even a few Spiritual reads.

Even though we might not want to admit it in polite company, we often search-out a book or magazine to take with us into the bathroom. So why not just circumvent that step, and put up a few shelves, add some books and stack some magazines? Who says a bathroom can’t be homey?

Even Ernest Hemingway had books in his room…….well then, there ya go.

Finca Vigia (Lookout Farm)

Ernest Hemingway's house in Cuba

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