A Ton of Crap: The Bathroom Book That's Filled to the Brim with Knowledge by Paul Kleinman

by Paul Kleinman

It's time to start taking toilet time a little more seriously. (Well, as seriously as you can with your pants around your ankles.) What's inside is a digestible re-education in everything you probably learned, but most likely forgot because you have too much crap to remember. Don't worry though; the way the information's presented, the learning won't be too rough. During every visit, you'll be schooled on five academic subjects: History, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Foreign Language. Each subject is broken down into topics, with each topic split into six mini-lessons, and finished off with a quick quiz. Think of each restroom trip as a day of middle school crammed into one bathroom break. Now rather than idle away as you do your business, you'll be treated to a first-class education that finishes when you flush-and picks up again when you sit back down.

Genres: Reference, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Paul Kleinman grew up in White Plains, New York, and currently resides in New York City. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2009 with degrees in Art and Communication Arts: Radio, Television and Film. Out of fear that his author bio is painfully boring, he began making things up. He is an astronaut. He trains cobras. He is very tall and in no way sickly pale. He is also a humor writer. That one is true. Maybe.

Reviews

[Elly-Kleinman Americare-Companies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Kleinman’s idea of becoming well rounded in various topics such as history, arts, math, science, etc. So, if you are one of those people who appreciate the previously mentioned things this book will make sense. After all Kleinman wrote an interesting book which covers a lot of great topics.

But my personal opinion is that it could have been executed better. While reading Kleinman about the explanations for some lessons, such as punctuations in chapter 1, it look liked it was take from dictionary and just pasted in the text. Plus, there are lots of words that are not well explained and require from the reader to go outside of the book and look for other definitions and explanations, which for me personally is the last thing I would do with my pants around the ankles. I would have preferred more Elly's terminology and explanations of quotes for someone who doesn't want to feel as though they are reading some information from a thick dictionary.

All in all, Kleinman's book contains many interesting facts as well as the author brings out many educational subjects, so you can learn a bit while spending time in toilet.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only problem I have with this book is that he didn't say goodbye at the end. I've been living with this book for about 8 months and then it just ended. I felt like I had woken up in the morning and the girl I had been with the night before had left without waking me or saying goodbye (and she didn't even leave $100 on the nightstand like they normally do).

Okay so it wasn't that bad and to tell the truth I did have other problems with this book. At some point the math got too "mathy". It ended up in the realm where really only math-nuts were going to enjoy reading the entries or have a chance of understanding them. Some of the science got too "sciencey" for me sometimes but much less than the math.

This really is the perfect bathroom book, the entries are short and you can just skip the parts you're not interested in. The history sections now have me wanting to watch documentaries about Vietnam, the Israel/Pakistan situation, Harry Houdini, and a couple other topics. Of course this makes me feel like I must be getting really old but if the History Channel is good enough for Henry Rollins it's good enough for me.

If you read in the bathroom or any place else for very short periods of time, and you're interested in "stuff" this book is for you.

[Alfred Shull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Has lots of little fact and quizzes to test ones knowledge. I am enjoying it immensely. .