Since I was a kid, I’ve been looking for the perfect way to read in bed. The ideal position would involve no sustained muscle effort, so I could just let my eyes drift shut as I read, without the book falling shut or my hand slipping or anything. One way is to sit up against something and hold the book on your lap, but that’s not great for falling asleep. So I usually end up reading on my side.
The problem is, you have to hold the book to see both pages, and in either case, you’re using some muscles to hold it where it is.
This has worked for most of my life, but it’s still not that ultimate relaxation.
However, I recently got a Kindle. I was intending to use it mainly as a mobile web browser, but I’ve surprised myself by using it to read an awful lot. And, with apologies to all the bibliophiles out there, I find the ergonomics better than a paperback. When snacking and reading, I can lay it flat on a table without the use of a book weight to hold it opened, and when lying in bed, I don’t have to keep moving it to read.
But it’s not perfect. There’s no way to hold it with a finger on the ‘next page’ buttons that doesn’t require a few muscles to hold it upright:
Either I work to hold my hand off the bed, or I awkwardly curl my fingers around it. Either way, it tips over if I relax my arm, even if it’s leaning against a pillow, and I’m startled awake by this:
I started to wonder if I could do even better. I got out of bed one night, went to the closet, and got a steel coat hanger and some pliers. After a few minutes of twisting, I created this:
First of all, it holds the Kindle upright …
And second, it lets me lie there motionless, and turn the pages with just a tiny twitch of my thumb:
Finally, after decades of reading in bed, I have reached that stage of perfect relaxation.
xkcd 
Ok, your previous post on the kindle convinced me to buy one – well, the post and the comic (where can I get a Don’t Panic skin for my kindle?)
I hope you’ve contacted Amazon about this so they can start production and I can buy one soon (I would never be able to wrangle a hanger into that). Any recommendations on a good book light for the kindle?
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I found something similar with the Sony Reader… it comes with this cover, and you can hold it easily like a regular book in either hand. (http://registrarism.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/sony-reader-prs-5002.jpg)
I just found out last night that while lying in bed, it balances perfectly, like in the picture, on one’s chest. only press a button to advance the page.
*A*mazing.
However, it, too, is imperfect. Thus, I may make a coat hanger holder for extra stability.
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You have really well-manicured fingernails. Do you have any tips for nail care?
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I actually had a gadget like this for holding paperback books open when sitting, such as at a table (or maybe while lying on your stomach). It’s part of where I got the idea. But turning the pages was never quite trivial.
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Widescreen monitor next to the bed. Rotate image 90 degrees. Turn down brightness. Lie ~0.5-1m from the screen. Set .pdf viewer to page-by-page mode. Change pages with mouse. Even better, works with electric format comic books, either in .cbr, individual image files (with a viewer like InfranView that lets you flick through a folder).
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Brilliant! I have this problem as well, and love coat hanger engineering … but I just spent my disposable income for at least the next few months on a netbook.
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please don’t be telling people to buy a kindle while amazonfail remains unresolved.
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I notice your right thumb is double-jointed. Is this a mutation or did you acquire the capability in an accident?
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Thanks for the idea! Now I only have to figure out how to hold the reading lamp in exactly the right place. Where’s my duct tape?
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@mike: Another reason why Twitter is useless — that link takes me to many pages of tweets, none of which link to what the underlying issue is. Is this another DRM thing? I read through about 200 tweets and still have no idea what I’m supposed to be outraged about this week.
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Have you considered this?
http://www.booksupport.com/
For a book it might be a bit cumbersome, but for a laptop, where you can flip pages with a mouse, it minimizes muscle usage.
Can some external device be used to advance through text with a kindle?
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I’ve been looking for an answer to this dilemma since I was 7 years old. You may have heard this before, but you’re a genius.
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@Jered, um, yes, that is a problem. People who own kindles obviously are willing to live with DRM, but it seems amazon is busy marking all (most?) books which deal with homosexuality as ‘adult’ and making them extremely hard to find, while leaving alone books that deal with otherwise similar heterosexual topics. Edrants has a reasonable summary.
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@mike: Don’t feel like getting into the DRM discussion now, but thanks for the link on this current issue. Somebody obviously screwed up big. I don’t think a boycott is yet in order but I’ll certainly add a letter to customer service asking for an explanation…
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i can identify with this post SO MUCH. i hate the next day when your hand and arm muscles are all sore from trying to hold open a big book.
ow.
plus you have to keep turning over and you can never quite get comfortable!
unfortunately i am not lucky (or affluent) enough to own a kindle, so if you ever discover a way to accomplish this with an old-fashioned paper book, do post about it.
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There is another non electronic option. Learning Braile. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve heard of people who were losing their eyesight and learned it, and found that they could read in bed without taking the arms from under the blankets!
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A netbook with a high resolution reflective screen might have a built-in solution to this problem. (OLPC in monochrome mode?) The bottom part of the clamshell (part with the keyboard) would be the stand. A reader program that would turn the page when the spacebar or enter key is pressed would then provide effortless reading.
Even better: voice activate the page turn when you say “page” or “turn.”
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@paul, @StCredZero I do the same thing as both of you for comics (sometimes I use a monitor, sometimes I turn by macbook pro on its side, with both I use an apple remote) but the real problem with reading books that way is eye strain. After a few hours, it gives me a headache, so whenever I can get the mobi / lit file to convert to lrf without errors (more and more of an issue nowadays), I use my Sony Reader.
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My two solutions are a) audio books (especially if they’re read by Stephen Fry…) and b) using my netbook @StCredZero said. 😀
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@HalibetLector If you can, try reading light-coloured text on a dark or black background. Virtually eliminates eyestrain, once you’re used to it.
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@Jenny audio books are a great idea, but your comment has raised a question in my mind… does Fry read xkcd?
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Geez, I can read most of the words on the Kindle screen in some of those photos. Doesn’t that violate some terms of service or something? You’re taking a huge chance that they send the DRM police around to your door.
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@rgoro (re: Braille) Good idea, except if someone walks in on you it’ll probably create an awkward moment…
“I was just reading!”
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Now we need to solve this problem with real paperbacks. All my obscure literature homework that puts me to sleep doesn’t come in .pdf
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Very creative, but I find that the old school is the best school. On my couch, I lie comfortably with my book tucked in the gap between the couch and the floor with my arm hanging over. I have to turn the pages manually, but when i’m deeply involved in a page the only things moving are my eyes.
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I have a different problem; when I lie on my side, head on pillow, my glasses get smooshed onto my face, making it impossible to read in that position. Because of that, I have to lie on my front with my elbows holding me up. I can definitely say that it limits my reading while I’m in bed, simply because it’s quite a bit of work.
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Kindle 1 doesn’t have a landscape mode. I assume that Kindle 2.0 doesn’t either. Does your brilliant invention hold the Kindle in portrait mode?
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Get out of my head, Randall.
I’ve had this problem since I was a small kid. I have found with the right pillow height, it’s possible to lie on your back with your shoulders and elbows forming a base. It’s surprisingly comfortable and you can see both pages.
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Well, the next level of comfort – automatic turn off of lights when you fall asleep reading.
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Here’s my reading in bed story. I was in the habit of printing out long papers (or whatever) and reading these in bed. So, one evening I’m holding up one of these bundles of around 20-40 sheets, and it flops over, as these are wont to do. I’m not wearing my glasses, and because the leading edge of the paper coming toward me (the tops of the pages) is coming straight at me but is too narrow to trigger my “incoming, close eyes” reflex, I took it straight on my cornea, which is an unpleasant place to get a paper cut. Ouch! (Turns out corneal scratches heal pretty fast, but I was still in pain and essentially blind for two days.)
Aside from that, I always wanted a book/laptop/whatever holder I could hang from the ceiling…
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Great, now all I need is a Kindle.
… which is not availabe in Europe : (
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I usually put the book on the floor and lie with my head over the edge of the bed above the book. It has disadvantages though – with my head lower than the rest of my body, it sort of rushes more blood into it. Which I guess might help when reading mathematics…
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i have found the iphone is a great reading tool, with the stanza application i can read a book with one hand.
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The Nokia 770 is light and, with FBReader, is formed perfectly for reading with minimal effort. I fall asleep reading it nightly. It’s my understanding the more current versions of the Nokia are similarly useful.
http://feelslikeburning.com/2006/04/16/reading-ebooks-on-the-nokia-770-with-fbreader/
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extremely necessary
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Those are some fancy sheets! Are they silk?
Why the hell are you reading Girls And Twilight?
Sorry, just couldn’t help myself.
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The best way to read while lying down, prone position, is from something like a massage table with the facehole. Lie with your face peering down through the gap and just adjust the height of the book so it is readable yet within reach of your dangling arms. Although certainly, glasses tend to get in the way of this as well. I must say, this article makes me desire a Kindle, considering I can read books from project gutenberg on it.
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If you don’t want to use a Kindle because of cost or DRM issues, I’ve found the best solution is the Bookgem. I’ve had one for years and I still take it with me everywhere.
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The Kindle seems like a great device. I have not done enough research on it to know how well it works with the ebook files I normally read though and $300 is a lot to spend when I already have an AT&T Tilt which I read ebooks on.
My in bed reading is done with lights out due to, ahem, roommate reasons, so I would turn the brightness all the way down on my Tilt and use the side scroller to turn pages. The reader program I was using sometimes did not scroll properly but it was flawless with keeping my spot in the book no matter how forcefully I shut down the program and/or the phone.
Still I was looking for a better program so I found AllReader+. It has an easy toggle button to go from white background and black text to a black background and green text, giving off very little bright light and making it easier to read in darkness. Also it has an autoscroll feature which allows me to be completely lazy and not even have to use the sidescroller except as a button to press to stop the scrolling. The only drawback to the autoscroll now that it is set to my reading speed (actually a tad slower) is sometimes my eyes close while it continues scrolling. Usually at that point I just put the phone down and go to sleep, but there is a potential to scroll past my place so I have to be aware about what pages I am on.
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I had neck surgery a few months ago and found I couldn’t hold a book in any comfortable position to read. Since books are one of my great passions I started listening to audio books on my blackberry. No hands, it helps me fall asleep, which was an issue after surgery. The only problem is that I tend to fall asleep listening and have to rewind to find the last thing I remember. Oh that and I woke up a few mornings ago with a blackberry shaped impression in my side! oops.
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@HalibetLector For converting to LRF, try Calibre.
I agree on the Sony Reader. It has two sets of buttons for turning pages, so I can hold it and read in bed, and adding a night light lets me do it without bugging the wife – too much.
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I appreciate the safety putty on there to prevent a gory sleep-roll-eye-gouging. It’s that kind of attention to detail that is the difference between a good product and partial blindness.
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I don’t have a Kindle, but I read a lot on my Nokia E61 (I’ve wormed thru almost 3 dozen books in the 30 months that I’ve had it for… and I can’t find a suitable alternative to it) I always like to read in bed, and this little big phone with a joystick is ideal!
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You are my hero. I can’t wait to go to bed tonight, after I get Mr. to work on making that hanger thing, because turning the page on the Sony was my last problem! Because no matter which had I used, it gets cold; now both can stay nice and cozy under the covers while the “invention does the rest. Dude!!!
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I got an iPhone last week and I’ve been using Stanza to read books in bed…at first I thought the small screen would bug me, but after reading two books now, I really really love it. you turn the pages, adjust brightness and font size etc. with very tiny touches to the screen.
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@ Jonathan: I’m guessing if you spend enough time laying around in bed reading that you need to think about stuff like this post, you very seldom do anything strenous enough to mess up your fingernails. GET YOUR ASSES UP OFF THE COUCH/COMPUTER CHAIR AND GO LIVE, FOLKS!
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@ SFTico: Meh.
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It is called an iPhone. I don’t have the heart to tell people (IRL) with a Kindle how awesome it is, especially the backlight. Plus the lack of DRM and the touch screen, and the fact that it supports every format I’ve ever found. And the fact that I always have it with me, and can pull it out at a moments notice to get that much further in whatever I’m reading. It was also only $300 for 16gb of storage and plays videos and has some awesome games. Plus all my todo lists, and email. Oh yea it’s my iPod too.
PS: If you are whining about the monthly fee, get it on a family plan. $30 for the data, $10 for the line, and whatever amount of minutes/texts you use. It ends up only being about $70 a month which is what I paid for my RAZR without data.
Damn I sound like an Apple commercial. 😦
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I have the exact same problem! The kindle is probably better for your eyes too. But it’s not a perfect solution. One still has to work to read.
I’m going to wait until I can get the mindlink so I can read with my eyes shut too.
Only problem I envision (no pun intended) is when I fall asleep while reading. I’m not quite sure what will happen. Will I dream the book or will my dream be merely based on the book?
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