Uncle John's Factastic Bathroom Reader

by Bathroom Readers' Institute

Bestselling book, fantastic new look!

2016 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Winner in Humor
Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year Awards, Honorable Mention in Humor (Adult Nonfiction)

Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader got a FACTASTIC facelift for the 28th all-new edition of this beloved book series. Now with a fancy flexi-cover and slightly larger trim size on the outside, and a sleeker style on this inside! All of our fans’ Bathroom Reader favorites are packed into these glorious pages—from little-known history to the origins of everyday things—plus odd news, weird fads, quirky quotes, mind-bending science, head-scratching blunders, and all sorts of random oddities. Oh yeah, and thousands of incredible FACTS! Feel smarter (and a bit more dignified) as you settle into…

Weird Body Parts of the Rich and Famous
The Wild Man of Borneo
Cryptic Movie Titles Explained
"Pathological Generosity" and Other Real Medical Conditions
How to Perform CPR on Your Dog
When Postal Workers Go Rogue
Start Your Own Country!
Animals Under the Influence
Welcome to No Mans Land
The Mad Potter of Biloxi
Saved From the The “Lost Leonardo”
The Ten Longest Wars in History
Stomach-churning Food-Safety Mistakes
You Swallowed What?
Incredible Stories of Survival
The Case of the Stolen Bridge and Other Weird Crime Reports

And much, much more!

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Trivia

514 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2015

About the author

The Bathroom Reader's Institute UJBR boasts more than 12 million books in print and a membership base topping 40,000 loyal readers . . .

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to Uncle John when I received one of the books as a Christmas gift with the inscription “Because it’s probably the only room where you don’t read”. Hahaha … if only she knew. What? No! No! Think bubble bath!

UNCLE JOHN’S FACTASTIC BATHROOM READER by the Bathroom Readers Institute

These are not the kind of books that you sit down and read in one or two sessions. They usually come in at 500+ pages crammed full of facts, trivia, odd news and all kinds of other things that absolutely boggle the mind.

This entry into the series is no exception. I can’t seem to ever be without a book within arm’s reach and this is perfect book to have close by to flip through during commercial breaks, on your kindle when waiting for an appointment or, of course, in the bathroom.

I'd like to thank Printers Row Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this book at no charge>

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual collection of fun facts, short stories and interesting lists that we've come to expect from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series. This edition was the first that had a new style of cover - which I can't say I particularly cared for. Although still technically a paperback, the cover is a little sturdier and larger than in the past. Not sure why the publisher did that - but now the newest editions don't match the size of the earlier editions.

[Jeff P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun information.

[Alicia Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of the Uncle John's Bathroom Series that I have read. I found this book while browsing the bargain book magazine (or Thrift books) and got it on Easter as a gift. This is the 28th book in this series and let me say that this is one of the best trivia books I have read.
Let me start with the other things in the book before I go into the stories themselves. The book has some quizzes for the reader to do (one I started, the others I haven't done yet). These quizzes are:
- Aunt Glady's The Great (pg. 166): A riddle story in which the reader needs to figure out if Aunt Glady is a psychic or a trickster.
- Mock N' Roll (pg. 181)- A quiz where the reader matches the tribute bands to bands their tributing to.
- Who Are These Guys? (pg. 204)- Ten questions about the last names of certain characters that are named Guy.
- Ol' Jay's Riddles- 11 different riddles for readers to figure out.
- 1,000 Ways To Die- Different 'cides and what you are killing

There are also repeated sections throughout this book such as:
- OW!- Stories of people who injured themselves. Most people in these stories survived.
- You Swallowed What?- Stories of people who swallowed strange objects and needed surgery afterwards.
- Your Dog Ate...- Much like You Swallowed What? sections, these stories follow dogs eating and swallowing objects they are not supposed to eat. Luckily, the dogs are alright after the surgery.
There are also some sections of the book that talk about terms (old war jargon or medical terms for example) and various quotes from celebrities or historic figures.

Besides the quizzes and repeated sections, there are facts at the bottom of each page. These are some facts I found to be interesting (there are a lot more). I organized these by pages, starting from 1-100, and what page they appear on.
Page 1-100:
- Page 21- It Takes 5.4 gallons of water to produce a single head of broccoli.
- Page 41- Dire wolves, which lived in North America about two million years ago, hunted mammoths.
Page 68- The world's oldest existing bottle of wine, found near Speyer, Germany, was produced in AD 325
Page 76- It takes 1.1 gallons of water to produce a single almond, and 4.9 gallons to produce a walnut

Pages 100-200:
Page 108- When Nabisco took over the Curtiss Candy Co. in 1981, the original recipe for butterfingers was lost
Page 112- Maryland created an oyster navy to combat oyster pirates
Page 144- Jelly donuts have fewer calories than plain glazed donuts
Page 149- Sailfish are faster than cheetahs

Pages 200-300
Page 233- Cupuacu fruit, a fruit grown in Brazil, tastes like chocolate, pineapple, and banana
Page 261- 130,000 years ago, horses were smaller compared to today, some were the size of housecats
Page 272- Guams blenny fish live on rocks by the sea
Page 299- A lone star tick bite can lead a victim to become allergic to red meat

Page 300-400
Page 313- Araucana chickens lay pastel blue eggs
Page 365- Sgt. Stubby was the first dog to earn a rank for alerting his unit to a gas attack in WWI
Page 379- Between 1990-2006, there were an estimated 150,000 golf cart injuries in the US
Page 395- The first mechanical dough mixer was invented in the 1st century AD. It was powered by a donkey

Page 400-500
Page 400- Birds poop on red cars more than any other cars
Page 419- The first mass-produced disposable diapers won't finish biodegrading until 2500
Page 426- When old books disintegrate, a chemical breakdown gives them a vanilla almond aroma
Page 456- In the late 17th century, the mail was delivered 10-12 times a day
Page 488- The last labrador duck was shot in 1875, it's the first North American bird hunted to extinction
Page 489- The worst anthrax outbreak happened in 1613. It killed 60,000 Europeans.
Page 493- In 2008, an artist created a tree that grows 40 different fruits

Other than the facts, the real meat of the book is the stories. The stories range from pop culture, history, science, odd news or stories, music, etc. The length of these stories ranges from short length, medium length, to long length. I found a lot of them to be intriguing. Here are a few stories organized by pages:

Page 1-100:
Better Than Gold (Page 16)- While gold is one of the most valuable things, ten other things are more valuable than gold. Examples are rhodium, taaffeite, tomatoes, illegal drugs, among other things.

Welcome To Transylvania, USA (Page 29): Places in the US that are named after capitals of countries. The one that interests me the most is Singapore, Michigan. It's an abandoned town that was created in the 1870s. The trees from the town were used for buildings after the Great Chicago fire took out most of the towns of Peshtigo (Wisconsin), Holland, and Manistee.
Due to deforestation, there wasn't a barrier to prevent the surrounding sand from covering the town. The town was abandoned and today is completely covered in sand.

McFlops (Page 42): Every fast food chain has had flops and Mcdonald's is no exception. This section has six former menu items Mcdonalds had at their restaurant. An example of a flop is the bacon bacon mcbacon- a double cheeseburger that had about five slices of bacon and a bun that was dipped in pork fat.

True Colors (Page 91): Pigments are used for coloring things like clothes or crayons. While most colors are safe, are there any dangerous ones? These are five types of pigments that are dangerous for humans. Examples include Emerald Green/Paris Green (which contained arsenic) and Mummy Brown (which used actual mummies).

Other sections I found interesting are Rename That Stadium (pg. 21), Aerial Archaeology (pg. 31), King Of The Wild Frontier...World (pg. 44), Welcome To No Man's Land (pg. 68), and What's The Word (pg. 83).

Page 100-200

The Mad Potter Of Biloxi (Page 110)- George E. Ohr was a pottery maker who tried to sell his pottery to customers. His pottery at the time didn't sell well because, according to people, they looked weird. The story continues on page 283, where after George passed away his pottery is accepted decades later in the art world and contributed to modern car parts.

Strange Medical Conditions (pg. 116)- These are six stories of people who suffer from bizarre medical conditions. One example is a man from Exeter, England who suffers from cotard syndrome, a rare condition where the person believes they are dead even though they are alive.

Bombed on Broadway- We talk about the worst movies ever put in theaters, but what about the worst Broadway shows? One of these mentioned is Moose Murders, a comedy whodunit that follows a group of people stuck at the Wild Moose Lodge in the Adirondack Mountains. Each person gets murdered by a person in a moose costume. The show was considered one of the worst on Broadway.

Weird Animal News- Peculier news stories that are based around animals. The ones I found interesting are Road Killer (the mystery behind what happened to the birds is what intrigued me) and Fixing Nemo (a goldfish that got cancer and went to a doctor to get the tumors removed).

Other stories I found interesting in this section are Facebook Scams (pg. 128), Who Is Andras Tamas? (pg. 136), The Department Of Silly Measurements (pg. 145), Don't Buy My Book (pg. 153), Lost Leonardo (pg. 155), They Cheated! (pg. 168), Weird Energy (pg. 179), Message In A Bottle (pg. 188), and 3-D Printing (pg. 191).

Pages 200-300

Odd Animal Studies (pg.213)- Much like weird animal news, this section focuses on animals, but it mostly focuses on odd science experiments. Most experiments focus on the animal's mating habits.

Four Experiments Of The Paranormal (pg. 220)- Four experiments to prove if the paranormal is real. The four experiments include the God Helmet Experiment, Philip Experiment, Soul Weight Experiment, and Afterlife Experiments.

Bad Campaigns (pg. 231)- Five campaigns from companies that were shunned online or publicly. Companies like Campbell Soup, Urban Outfitters, Under Armor, among others went under fire for some controversial advertisements.

Penguins & Landmines (pg. 247)- These are stories about man-made disasters that had an impact on humans, but not the animals in the surrounding areas.

Vinyl Gold (pg. 290)- Rare vinyl records that are worth a lot of money if it's in mint condition. Records include Good Luck Charm by Elvis Presley, Street Fighting Man by Rolling Stones, etc.

Other stories in this section I liked are Who Wants Seconds? (pg. 226), The First Wish (pg. 235), Weird Science (pg. 239), Behind The Hits (pg. 251), How To Perform CPR on Your P.E.T. (pg. 265), Toxic Animals (pg. 273), and What's The Word? (pg. 288).

Pages 300-400

The World's Most Valuable Egg (pg. 308): Carl Faberge was an egg designer who created decorative Easter eggs. His most popular customer was Czar Alexander III, who ordered Carl's decorative eggs for his wife. The story continues on page 451 where it goes over ten missing Carl Faberge eggs.

The History Of U.S. Intelligence Agencies (page 318): The origin story of the US most infamous intelligence agencies. America has about 17 different agencies. This saga continues on page 420 and goes into more history of the agencies in their roles in the 1900s and page 495 where it delves into various covert operations.

You Stole What? (page 329): Stories of odd things going missing. One of these stories is about how someone managed to steal a bridge. While this might seem ludicrous, it happens a lot. Bridges from Pennsylvania, the Czech Republic, and Michigan (the main highlight of the entry) were all stolen.

Squirrel Barking (Page 351): In 1792, there was a bizarre hunting fad known as squirrel barking, where the hunter would shoot the bark of a tree a squirrel is perched on rather than the squirrel itself. The explosion caused by the shotgun supposedly kills the squirrel.
Hunters back then did this for two reasons: squirrels were pests in gardens and for a marksmanship contest which was a huge fad itself.

Other stories I liked are A Pirate's Life For Shih (pg. 325), Start Your Own Country (pg. 333), Where Did CEO Come From? (pg. 366), and Dustbin of History: Sam Upham (pg. 378)

Page 400-516

An Unfamiliar Face (Page 417): Prosopagnosia (or face blindness) is a medical condition where a person is unable to recognize a person's face. In more severe cases, a person with this condition can not recognize their face. Along with face blindness, there is also Capgras syndrome, where a person believes their family/friend is an imposter.

Secret Places In Legendary Places (Page 443): Secret passageways or rooms in historic landmarks like the Paris Opera House, Wolf's Lair Castle, Mansion on O Street, among others. The mystery behind these secret passageways is what their purpose was.

Herbivores No More (Page 457): In 1998, a science experiment was conducted to see what was killing the baby songbirds. From the camera footage, most of the kills were from white-tailed deer, animals that are not known to eat meat.
This section delves into ungulates (animals with hoofs) that can become omnivores when given the chance.

Other stories I found interesting are Ripping Off The Band-Aid (pg. 405), The Ten Longest Wars In History (pg. 460), and Wild, Man! (pg. 488).

There is a lot more in this book. All in all, this book is great for people who love trivia books or want to learn new information. I can't wait to read the other books in this series.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic is fabulous. I learn something new every time I read one of Uncle John's book. This one was no different. This one will now reside with all of other Uncle John's on their shelf of Honor. Want trivia to bring a smile this is the place.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can’t go wrong with these books; they’re always packed with interesting information. I was actually thinking that these books would make an interesting television series, a few of the longer stories combined with several shorter stories with the quotes and bottom-of-the-page factoids scattered about. I’d watch that!

I need to start keeping a log of articles and other pages I find especially interesting, particularly if I can use them in my teaching. The story of Ching Shih was really interesting to me in this book, but I know there were a dozen others.

Highly recommended book and series! (And some are available on Hoopla!)

[Dan Stern · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information inside is engaging. It's also divided into small chunks that can be read in a short amount of time - which makes this book perfect for its intended purpose.
Did I say "Ho-Hum"? I've always loved Uncle John's readers. I started with #2 and I've read just about all of them. I enjoyed this one a lot and will continue to keep reading these until I either go blind OR Uncle John retires. Read and Enjoy!

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good edition this year. The George Washington slave story really altered my view of Washington. I never knew the CIA was involved in so much of the world history. There was so much stuff in this book that I can't rate it all.
Loads of great stories that I'm going to talk about with friends for awhile.

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the book because there was a lot of interesting things that I never new about.

[Coleman Wigger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books are all good. Amazing stories as well as facts.

[Dennis Pike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and entertaining

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book to keep in the throne room. Really has a ton of useless information & trivia. Took me a year to read this edition, but it was worth it.

[Erick Thielbar]

good

[Charles Yoder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting facts in this book but maybe not as many as some of the others.

[SoundofSilence_BookFan · Rating 5 out of 5]

We usually keep several of Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers in the house - for some reason, they are never in the bathroom. The two Christmas themed ones are a standard part of our Christmas decorations. I did not know they are available on Kindle until a few months ago. I noticed my children had a few of the books on our Kindle cloud. I have even bought these as gifts when someone has a long car or plane ride. When the publisher offered a free copy of this book, in electronic format, in exchange for an honest review, I decided to take them up on it to see how it works as a kindle book.

For those of you who have not familiar with Uncle John’s, it is a book of bite sized articles (some short, others long) with neat facts, historical stories, as well as stories and facts that are candidates (or included) in Ripley’s Believe It or Not or the Guinness Book of World Records. It is full of facts that are distracting and will give you hours of entertaining conversation when you have nothing else to talk about. We first discovered Uncle John’s when one of my children won it and brought it home as a school prize. I am not a fan of books or reading material in the bathroom but I am, apparently, in the minority. The book is so entertaining that you are often unable to put it down in the bathroom or not.

For those of us (me) who prefer to read it outside the bathroom, it makes a great long or short read for waiting in the car or office, or as a work break decompress moment. The kindle version is a bit harder to use (in my view). I normally flip straight to the index and find what I want to read. On the Kindle version, if you are wanting to skip around or to find something else, it is a bit more keystrokes and more difficult than I would prefer.

This year’s book is the longest I have come across. There are a few repeats if you have been reading it for many years, but that is inescapable. This version is not themed so the facts and stories are all over the place and there is something for everyone. As an ebook this may bring about home peace to households where everyone in the family is constantly taking the book off. No more looking to see who took the book. Everyone has it on their kindle. Unfortunately, several kindles means reading it and keeping your place can require making sure everyone does not sync their place.

I liked the book but I think I will stick to the hard copy version as a gift or purchase. There are few people I know well enough to know their bathroom preferences. I’m just not sure how well received it would be to ask ‘do you take your e-reader into the bathroom?” to someone not living in my own house (let alone in my own house)!

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love learning random facts ands so books like this are right up my street. And boy is this one packed with information! It is literally hours worth of reading, much of which will either make you smile, or have you silently exclaiming 'oh wow, I never knew that!'.

The book is marketed as a bathroom reader, and quite hilariously the facts and stories are a mixed bag of short snappy ones, medium length ones, and long stories for ahem, longer visits!

I read this book on kindle and the only criticism I had was that you couldnt choose whether you wanted to jump to the short facts, or indulge in the longer ones, so it was all a bit of a lucky dip as to what came next.

That said, I really enjoyed learning some fascinating new things I can now share with others. My Dad is a big general knowledge person and always zooms to know facts about random things. Last night I was able to get my own back thanks to this book. When watching a programme about The Beatles I was able to tell him how their Sargent Pepper album was the first ever album to feature lyrics printed on it....aha, the tables are starting to turn I can say with a wry smile on my face!

The only other thing I would point out to UK readers is that there is a lot of US based facts and stories. Whilst I found some of them interesting I did also find myself flicking past some that didn't grab my interest.

This is a fun idea which will certainly leave you wiser and entertained,

Thank you to Printers Row Publishing Group who provided a copy in return for an honest review.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I didn't read it in the bathroom, it would be a great toilet time read. It was read while waiting in the car for the kids to get out of school, and also while waiting in the doctor's office waiting room. It is a perfect book to entertain you during short periods of time. There isn't a storyline to follow so you don't have to worry about forgetting important things. You can bounce around to whatever section that you are interested at the moment. I really liked this.

 

Something I thought was neat:

 

-medical students make-up sayings (mnemonic phrases) to remember things

SCALP is used to remember the layers of the scalp.

 

Skin

Connective tissue

Aponeurosis

Loose areola tissue

Pericranium 

 

Amazon US

 

I recieved a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My shelf's in trouble after this one...



Great content as always! Good to see 20 articles about foreign objects being swallowed or impaled in peoples faces, as I would expect. However I'm very sad to see my usual toilet cover replaced with a clipart duck. It hurts me dearly. And also to see the normal Goudy Old Style headers replaced with a typeface that looks like it's made for 7px captions on websites.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband and I buy trivia books like this for the bathroom. Uncle John's is one of our favorites. We tend to like the general ones rather than the specific ones, so we can learn about a wide subject matter of topics.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from the BRI. I love this type of random trivia books and Uncle John never lets me down. While some of the entries may be a little long to count as "bathroom" reading, they are nonetheless interesting. With random factoids on the bottom of every page you will always have something to read and think about while sitting on the can.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this style of book and this one was literally jam packed with fun facts and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't read any others in this series but will definitely be looking out for them, a very easy and fact filled way to pass the time. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from the publishers via NetGalley.

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply one of the best books I've read all year. How a series has managed to sustain such an interesting and pleasant mix of Fortean news stories, trivia soundbites and longer articles regarding the more fascinating and/or esoteric, for so long, I cannot fathom. Yes I got it free but it would have been more than worth the price of admission. Superlative.

[Bookish_predator · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Huge thanks to the Bathroom Readers Institute, Printers Row Publishing Group and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've been reading this for a while as its the sort of book you can dip into every now and then and read a little bit, or a lot, and then put it down until you want more factastic bits of information.

I love it and would recommend it to everyone.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an odd, quirky book this is!
I am assuming that this is a popular book series in the States. Some of the facts, news and quotes are witty and eye opening.
I might get a copy for our bathroom!
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Printers Row Publishing via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[Faye Ridpath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads.

Full of interesting and fun facts!

[Tom Darrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

26+ full sized trivia collections in and they are still producing great stuff. Never any repeated stories, although they do provide updates for previously released stories.

[Mike]

These are such great books! I own several different editions and am always rereading them (a few pages at a time). There's always something you didn't know or forgot you knew or you just want to revisit.

If you're a trivia junkie or just a casual fan you can't go wrong with Uncle John's.

***I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley (for which I am grateful) but then I bought a physical book so I could always have one on hand.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for a most crappy time ( sorry, sorry.) When reviewing this book, I used it as well, one should. It is perfect for that. I did not read all at once, and much would be lost if you attempted to do such. But reading in short pockets of time when necesary is brilliant! Even topics that would usually not interest me at all can hold my attention.

This is my first uncle john's bathroom reader. I've seen them many times but not actually looked at them. After my experience with this one, I would love to pick up more!