My (re)discovery of manga and light novels encouraged me to set up my bedroom to be a little more conducive to reading comfortably. And, oddly enough, this was one of those moments where I'm reminded that, indeed, technology has progressed somewhat as the years have passed.
When I was a kid/teen, I had a great lamp on my bed. It would clip on to something, then it had a bendy but rigid gooseneck sort of arrangement that meant you could position it however you saw fit. It was, in short, an excellent reading light — but it was also an excellent reading light that I had approximately 30 years ago.
Regardless, I found myself on Amazon looking for something similar (I believe I searched for "bendy neck clip-on reading light") and was provided with a wealth of options. The basic concept was the same — clip on a thing, bend the neck to an appropriate angle — but the execution was quite different. Notably, most of them are USB powered now, and also the lights in them are not regular old lightbulbs, but LEDs instead.
Making a choice before I even allowed myself to become overwhelmed with the options, I now find myself the proud owner of a clip-on USB rechargeable amber LED reading light. And y'know what, I really like it. I went specifically for the amber light rather than a white or colour-selectable light because supposedly amber light is good to bathe in before bed, being the antithesis of blue light.
I was concerned that the effect would be akin to reading under one of those orange sodium street lights and I guess in some regards it it — but damn, if it isn't comfortable to read by. And it most definitely has an effect, too; stepping out of being bathed in nothing but amber light into something with more regular-style electric lighting is actually rather jarring. So I'm trying to make an effort to arrange things so that once I switch that light on and start reading, the next thing I will do is fall asleep.
I found the Amazon reviews for the light rather amusing. There were a lot of people complaining that the light is orange. I mean, what exactly did you think you were getting when you ordered an amber light? As amusingly Engrish as the packaging was, the actual product page on Amazon was pretty clear about what it offered, so I feel like turning it on and it being orange shouldn't have been a surprise if you were paying attention. But given that Amazon is a place where people will answer questions with "I don't know" and then wonder why they get downvoted by people looking for an actual answer… well, make your own mind up.
Anyway, upshot of all that is that I've been reading quite a bit before bed of late, and enjoying it. I devoured volume 6.5 of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki in an evening and a half, and I'm working my way through volume 7 now. Unfortunately the next volume isn't out until the end of next month, but I'm sure I'll find a way to cope. I have, after all, been stocking up on a variety of interesting manga and light novels of late!
On that note, I'm feeling a bit zonked out, so I'm going to get an early night and read some more misadventures of fictional Japanese high-school students under OMG ORANGE light. Hope you're having a pleasant weekend!
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