Like an Open Book

Occasionally, people stop me in libraries. "Where did you get that?," they ask, looking at the book magically propped beside my laptop. They're asking about the magic. And the magic is Page Boy.

Two and a half years ago, during my first week of freshman year, I purchased this amazing fold-up wire book stand from the Harvard Coop, for about $5. I hadn't run across another Page Boy in years, but when I went searching today, I found it for sale at this site. I own a lot of gadgets. But I'd venture to say that not one of them has given me more productivity and delight per dollar than the Page Boy. I use it literally every day; it enables me to interface between books and my laptop simultaneously. If you've ever tried to take notes or copy down quotations from a book by weighting it open with a stapler and a half-empty bag of chips (so ineffective, by the way), you'll know what I mean. The Page Boy is simple, elegant, portable, works with almost any book you could imagine, never tips over, and keeps your book on a plane parallel to your laptop's screen. I can't imagine college without it.

Well. I can. But college would involve a lot more staplers and half-empty bags of chips.