I have a friend whose family refers to the bathroom in their house as the library. Libraries, a place where much reading is traditionally done, has been deemed an appropriate moniker for their bathroom for the same reason.

Or so I’ve been told.

“Oh, he’s in the library.”

“You have a library?!”

“Sort of.”

With this book-bathroom association going on in the family DNA, it is no surprise that I found my friend laughing to herself as she exited the Barnes and Noble restroom after a recent meeting for coffee.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“I noticed several signs that said no un-purchased merchandise was allowed in the restroom,” she said.

“And…”

“It came to mind why they might have those signs.”

“To prevent theft, I’d guess,” I replied.

“I just envisioned people sitting there on the toilet doing their reading…people bringing a stack of books, shutting the door, and settling in for a while.”

Really? Because I didn’t envision that at all. Worst case scenario in my mind was an image of someone trying to jack the Twilight trilogy by shoving the books down her pants. And really, I can’t think of a better place for those books.

I don’t know if I think serious reading should happen at all aspects of the food cycle. Intake I don’t mind, but exhaust… I don’t want to pick a book off the shelf at a store and wonder where it’s been.

My official blog stance on this issue?

I support the “no books in the bathroom” policy at Barnes and Noble.