The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

This Techy Bookmark Doubles as a Reading Light

By Jahla Seppanen Published February 15, 2023

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Excuse us as we casually geek out over a Japanese bookmark. The Bookmark Light by Yyouei Design, to be specific— a half bookmark, half reading light that is as thin and light as a piece of film.

Go ahead and make fun of us for loving a bookmark. But when is the last time your bookmark won a prestigious German Design Award? (A feat Bookmark Light earned in 2017). Did your reading lamp get chosen for BMW’s i3 & i8 concept exhibition? (Bookmark Light was.) Have any of your book accessories been exhibited in a museum? (Bookmark Light got space in Toyama Prefectural Art, nbd.)

Recommended Videos

So you admit, Bookmark Light may be the coolest thing since, well, books.

It’s a display of Japanese minimalism at its finest, with a clean and simple design infused with smart functionality

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The thin and malleable rectangle is made of a special flattened film. This keeps your place in any book. However, the surface of the film is also printed with nanoparticle ink that transmits electricity. An LED light built into the thin film shines when one lithium coin battery (sold separately) is attached to the end and the bookmark is bent so both ends touch. Once the ends are put together, the circuit printed by the ink carries an electrical current, and presto, you’ve got light!

Kouichi Okamoto is the mastermind behind the product, and co-creator and Head Designer of Kyouei Design. Okamoto was born in Shizuoka City where the company resides and splits his time between modern product invention and music producing.

When’s the last time your bookmark was designed by a techno DJ mixer?

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Other design concepts from Okamoto include a melting table lamp— a bedside light that looks like a bucket of paint being knocked over.

It’s as common to see Kyouei Design products in a museum as it is in everyday life. Many of their pieces are concept pieces commissioned by galleries, like a series of 504 individual music boxes which play delicate sounds in reactor to visitor movement at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Other inventions are made to be dragged through the mud like outdoor deformation shelter tents and trekking-pole chairs.

Bookmark Light is still our favorite.

Designed in Japan, Bookmark Light only runs about $19.43 USD and ships worldwide.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Born and raised off-the-grid in New Mexico, Jahla Seppanen is currently a sports, fitness, spirits, and culture writer in…

Culture

Snag Yourself One of These Four Must-Have Cigar Sampler Packs for Just $20

Travel cigar ashtray and holder

If you've always wanted to start trying cigars, or even just expanding your horizons, then you may want to check out this special deal that we have going with Cigar Page. You can pick from four different samples from some of the best cigar brands on the market, many of them our top overall picks. That includes picks from Oliva, La Aurora, and Rocky Patel. With cigars rated up to 95, you're getting a lot of excellent quality here, although there is a limit of one sampler per customer. Even so, with discounts from as high as $112 down to just $20, it's well worth grabbing if you can.
SHOP NOW

The Manual's Must-Haves Cigars
The first sampler you can pick up is the Olivia. These folks are a pretty big staple of the cigar world and have been making cigars since the 1800s. The 10-cigar sampler usually goes for $97 and includes a nice selection from Connecticut Reserve Toro to Serie O Maduro Robusto. Another bundle from an old-school Cigar maker is the La Aurora pack, which comes with a lot of classic flavors like La Aurora Preferidos 1903 and La Aurora 115 Anniversario. The 10-pack usually goes for $105, so it's pretty high-end, but this deal knocks it down to $20, so it's perfect if you've been wanting to try it out.

Culture

Netflix is planning to continue investing in gaming, including new co-op games

The company has had games on its service since 2023.

Even as Netflix is raising prices on consumers, the company has also announced that it will be introducing couch co-op and party games for subscribers. The company has offered cloud gaming as a "beta" to a subset of its subscribers since 2023, and the move into co-op games suggests that the streamer will continue to invest in this area.

Co-CEO Greg Peters made the announcement as part of the company's Q4 earnings report, but he didn't detail what games might be available through this new platform. “We think of this as a successor to family board game night or an evolution of what the game show on TV used to be," he explained.

Culture

The best adventure movies: The films that keep you on the edge of your seat

These adventure movies will take you to new parts of the world

Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark

The idea of an adventure movie is pretty specialized. These are movies that exist broadly within the world of action cinema, but they are just one small corner of that world. These movies typically involve exotic locations, traps, and tunnels. Sometimes, they're set in the jungle or the desert, and sometimes they're set on the high seas.

Personally, I'm partial to sea-faring movies, maybe in part because I have no desire to live my life on the water. In my own life, these movies have often represented a chance to understand the world, and to appreciate its vastness, splendor, and danger.