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The moisture in the bathroom must be murder on those books!

I would be more concerned with steaming the books to death than hygiene.

unless there's nasa-level ventilation, i wouldn't put my books anywhere near my bathroom!

Those books should be flagged!

Reading materials in the bathroom gross me out.

I would normally agree with reading material being gross, but the placement of those books suggests bathtime reading, which I'm all for.

I *wish* that I had enough "dead space" in the bathroom to store books there.

I love books in the bathroom, but in my new apartment, the bathroom is so small it gets very steaming with each shower. The books got moldy and I had to throw them out.

If books are kept in a room that's just a water closet - no bathtub - the humidity wouldn't be too high. Even a room that just has a tub that's used infrequently would likely be safe. It's a shower that'd be a problem ... and again, those are different in Paris. Lots of families have those hand held shower heads, that discourage long, steamy (American style) showers, and thus produce less humidity.

I don't think books being stored in the bathroom is a hygiene problem - I just love mine too much to expose them to that moisture. Our bathrooms are so bad about it we often have water dripping the walls. If it was big and airy like the picture with no shower, maybe.

I love the idea but must say I, too, love most of my books too much to subject them to the moisture. Same goes for artwork that's at all precious -- even beloved posters don't hold up well in bathrooms.

At the same time, Jardin's remark about the real libraries being in our heads is lovely, and we should note that the books in the photo were not his own but left by friends.

I like Elle but I'm still against books in the bathroom!

I'm all for keeping a bit of reading material in the bathroom and think people who find it "gross" have some serious neurosis, but this...

I would never keep any books I cared a lick about in such a horrible environment. Even in a well-ventilated bathroom they would quickly be destroyed.

I bathe occasionally (-but shower regularly, for the record) and I enjoy reading in the tub, but it's such a pain to hold my hands above the water to keep them dry.

I end up putting the book away pretty fast, just for the comfort of letting my hands relax in the water.

I should probably buy one of those shelves that fit across your tub -- I vaguely recall seeing one designed to hold books open.

No thanks - this setup looks better than it would work in my house.

The problem is not the books, it's that Americans take escessively long hot steamy showers wasting gallons of water and tones of fossil fuels to heat water to often painfully high levels. Europeans are more restrained in their use of natural resources. If you are eco-responsible, having books in the bathroom is no different from cookbooks or a desk in a kitchen, where you're likely to generate far more moisture, along with grease and odors, vent hoods notwithstanding. Having said that, we're among the American Wastrel Class and do take long showers that steam up the mirrors. But, we have always had books, magazines, and newspapers in the bathroom. It provides such a perfect catch-up reading opportunity; guys will understand. ~:o)

I love how it's always referred to as "hygiene" - since when did trying to avoid germs and mold become uncool?

Uh, since so many people on this site seem unaware that there are billions of germs, bacteria and mold swarming over every inch of you and everything you touch, not to mention the air you breathe, every second of every day, and no amount of literature in the bathroom or scouring of the countertops is going to change that?

You cannot avoid germs and mold, and "cleanliness" is, for the most part, an illusion. That said, l like a clean house as much as anyone else ... but for aesthetic reasons, not health ones.

I have two books in my bathroom that are waterproof! Maybe we should all take inspiration from childrens' bath books and THEN I'd happily stack a load up there.

In French bathrooms the toilet is usually in a different, separate room from the bath and shower, no?

The bathroom shown looks big enough to accommodate a chaise longue and small writing table. It is more a sitting room with a tub, so books would be fine in there, in my opinion, as long as one didn't drop them in the water.

The Puritanism of some of the comments here is revealing, I must say.

Moldy books from the steam would be my concern (to the people who said that there's mold everywhere... there's the mold we live with and the mold you can actually see... I wouldn't want to ruin my books). That room looks more like a bathtub stuck in the middle of the living room, anyway.

I think one of the hygeine issues is due to the fact that if you don't put the toilet seat down toilet germs fly everywhere. Most people don't cover their toothbrushes, though, so they can't really complain. : P

Showers aren't the only things that cause steam. Any large, non-lukewarm bath will cause more than enough humidity to potentially harm books, at least over long term storage.

I come from a Bibliophile family, so there were always books kept in the bathroom - but rarely for long periods of time. A moisture rich environment just isn't healthy for paper. Like someone pointed out, I would only store books in a large, airy bathroom. Even then, I wouldn't store books near the ceiling (where warm, steamy air rises) or directly over the tub.

Book shelves in a toilet only room seems like a fantastic idea to me, though. For the germaphobes, the only people who will touch the books are your family - and let's face it, you're sharing all their germs anyway.

By the way, over-the-tub book holders are wonderful, wonderful things. I used to have one that had room for a book and a drink, and it was positively decadent.

I agree with monarda re the puritanism of some of these comments. I would call it neopuritanism, though--a sort of sad subspecies of narcissism--a preciousness of one's self in one's environment. I'm not saying this about the individual commenters on books in the bathroom, but it put it in mind......