Every bookworm knows the thrill of being hooked on a good book.
Hours pass by before you realise your hands are cramping and your eyes are stinging.
To help you out, we pulled together a list of some genuinely useful book-ish gadgets that can help you read for longer, in comfort.
They will also help you remember what you’ve read and keep track of your favourite passages, while you’re busy getting lost in the story.
Whether you’re a serious book lover, want to get out of a reading slump, or are stumped on what to buy your book-loving friend, these are all BookTok tested and approved.
Some are necessary, others are helpful additions and the rest are, well, just for the pure dopamine boost.
Let’s get into it.
Clear and colour-coded sticky notes
The best books are filled with writing that forces us to pause so we can read it again. And, unless you have a photographic memory, even the most thought-provoking, beautiful or breathtaking words get lost.
So adding tabs to your favourite passages is a game-changing memory aid.
Annotating books isn’t just great for future reference, it can help you read more actively, which in turn helps you remember and understand the book better.
Maybe you’re an anarchist that gets a thrill out of writing directly into books, but if not, clear sticky notes are a great alternative.
Level it up by creating a key (maybe you want to remember which things made you laugh, cry, or note moments of character development?) to annotate with rainbow sticky tabs.
Book darts
Just like sticky notes, book darts help you make notes of a specific page or passage that you want to return to.
The main difference with book darts is they are made out of metal, so you can reuse them, they look neater and are more durable.
Page holder
After holding open a heavy book for a long time, the hand cramp is real. Page holders are a simple, affordable little gadget that means you can hold a book open with one hand, freeing up the other for your coffee/water/wine.
Wooden ones are a more sustainable alternative to plastic and come in different sizes.
Clip-on reading lamp
A reading lamp is essential for nighttime reading. Straining your eyes to read in semi-darkness makes them tired quicker – our eyes can be fatigued just like any of our muscles.
A portable clip-on lamp is great for travelling or when you want to read in bed without annoying your partner. While it can be a bit fiddly and needs charging up, it seems to work fine if you clip it to the cover, and the below one from Tazler has great battery life.
It has three brightness levels and diffuses light evenly across the page.
Flat book lamp
Another BookTok favourite is the flat LED light panel. It’s a rectangle of glass surrounded by light, so you can place it directly on the book for it to light up the page.
You might want to get a glass cleaner for this one, or you won’t be able to read the book through all your thumbprints.
Neck reading lamp
And, finally, in the lamp line-up is this hands-free neck lamp, which is way less faff than a clip-on one.
Just place it around your neck, and the two lights on either side will light up your pages.
You want to be avoiding blue light at nighttime, and the below rechargeable lamp does away with it altogether. You can instead choose from yellow, warm white and cool white depending on how bright you need it to be.
Personalised book/stamp embosser
Ok, this one isn’t strictly necessary – but we love it. A emboss stamp that personalises all your books with a beautiful 3D logo? Yes, please.
A library-inspired one from Etsy gives the same effect as old fashioned wax seals, so you can officially mark your best books as part of your library.
Book review notepad
GoodReads changed the game for book reviews, but they can’t stop the appeal of building a collection of handwritten reviews. The below A6 review notepad is really sweet.
Pouch for holding accessories
Now you’ve bought all these accessories, where are you going to keep them?
Pop your pen in the Bookaroo pen pouch that straps around your book, slide your sticky tabs underneath and voila.
Buy it now from the Literary Book Company
Book sleeve
This one would make a good gift for a friend who is precious about their favourite books.
A padded fabric book sleeve will keep your books from being ripped, bent or damaged while you’re reading them. This small business sells sleeves in different designs, like the below celestial one.
Prism glasses
These might not win any prizes for coolness, but they are a neck strain-saviour for reading in bed.
The ultimate lazy man gadget, the prisms in these glasses turn your vision 90 degrees towards your feet, allowing you to read a book while lying flat on your back.
Cute bookmarks
If you’re not a regular on BookTok, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a bookmark is just a long piece of laminated card you slip in between the pages. And, sure, if you’re trying to save money then any old bookmark will do the job.
But if you want to treat yourself, there are some great ones to choose from, including ones with swords and bent spoons with embossed messages.
If you’re prone to losing things, but the thought of turning down the corners of a page makes you feel ill, it’s probably best you stick to using scrap bits of paper, to be honest.
Book seat
Sick of using your arm muscles to hold up a book like some chump? This book holder is for you.
Seriously, though, these are perfect for resting your book to avoid neck pain and help with posture, for hands-free reading when you’re in the bath, or propping a recipe book up while cooking. They also make reading accessible for people who need a hands-free experience.
The below one comes with a handy pocket to keep your other book accessories when you’re on the move.
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on purchases made through one of these links but this never influences our experts’ opinions. Products are tested and reviewed independently of commercial initiatives.
MORE : These are the books people wish they could read for the first time again
MORE : How to start reading more books – and enjoying it again
MORE : The books that changed our lives: How five books changed five people’s lives for the better
For all the latest Lifestyle News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
