An interesting example of how technology changes how we do the simplest of tasks The Lightwedge LED Book Light arrived on our shelves somewhere around 2005. This cleverly designed reading light puts the light right where you need it – on the page. It simply sits on top of the page you are reading, illuminating it perfectly without disturbing someone next to you. It comes in two sizes: The Lightwedge original book light is for standard size books and textbooks. The Lightwedge Paperback is smaller and suitable for paperback books. Our customers were well pleased and sales of the items were good. And then … along came what has been called the “Oprah Effect”. In late December 2007, the Lightwedge was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sales soared! Difficult as it was for the company to keep up with demand, they went on to develop new products and capitalised on the Harry Potter craze, customising the various book lights with Harry themes. Ahhh, but nothing this side of Heaven is meant to last forever! At the same time, the folks at Amazon were developing and had released the first of the e-readers. Will hardcover books go the way of the dinosaur? Somehow, I think not. I’d be hard pressed to ever give up my classics and reference books in favour of the cloud which may just poof one day and evaporate like vapour. There are may that share my view. I would hope the Lightwedge folks would downsize instead of jumping ship. Already, the greed factor has entered into the picture. We have no more of the soft cases for these book lights which protect them from dust, scratches and damage. Would you believe that at Amazon (are you surprised?) covers for the Lightwedge LED book light are selling between $59.99 and $231.75. That’s not a typo. $231.75 plus $4.99 shipping as if they could not afford to ship this to you at no charge at that outrageous price! This is an item the seller paid between $4.00 and $4.50 for if they bought it wholesale from Lightwedge. Hopefully, some resourceful souls on itsy.com will start to produce home made carrying cases for items such as this and put the scalpers in their place. We do still have some stock of the Lightwedge Original Book Light and the Lightwedge Paperback, at fair prices. In fact, at this writing, we have a buy one get one free special. Worry about your case later, get your book light now if you treasure your ‘real books’ as much as I do.
By: Mary Wecker
