I’m usually awake a little bit later than Stephanie (case in point), time I spend reading online, blogging, winding down, etc. This is all possible (in bed and in the dark) thanks to the perfectly minimal illumination of a single LED at the top of my ThinkPad screen, which faintly illuminates the keyboard.

As nice as that me-time is, if I don’t come to the computer with a specific desire to do something, I often get stuck in this endless cycle of blog comment checking, gmail checking, and bloglines checking. It’s like the part of my brain responsible for inspiration just shuts off. Which probably says more about the insomnia-inducing effects of illuminated screens than anything else.

It’s when I’m not on the computer that I tend to come up with things I want to do when I am. I might be watching an engrossing movie. Talking with friends. Reading books. Especially reading books. There’s something that does to my mind that seems to bring all sorts of deeper thoughts and ideas to the surface—usually to the point where I have to put the book down because I’m not actually reading any more.

The problem is that I don’t have much good time to read (books). The best time is when it’s dark. Which is the reason I default to the laptop (and its two integrated sources of light). You can probably imagine the thought I had next. “If I could only take that LED off the laptop and put it on a book…” Which is when I realized I needed a booklight.

Not just any booklight. I wanted one that amounted to a single LED I could plug into the wall. So I scoured Amazon until I found something even more perfect: a rechargeable LED booklight. It just arrived today. It’s perfect.