Friday 6 November 2009

The Foldaway Bookrest



My initial thought when I saw this product was that it would give me a chance to read while breastfeeding my son. Now that I have a Boppy support cushion propping him up as he feeds, I can usually get a few pages of a novel in while he suckles away, especially as he has a tendency to fall asleep when he's had his fill. But when I tried it out, I didn't find it very practical. I had to always choose my feeding station somewhere near a table - not ideal as I usually sit on my bed, in a comfy armchair or in a rocking chair in the nursery - and it was a pain to keep leaning over to turn over the page.

After a few failed attempts, I gave up on that idea and decided to see how else to use it. And I was actually quite surprised at how many different uses it has around the house. In the kitchen, it is absolutely brilliant for holding open a big recipe book at the right page when you're cooking - and as the book isn't laying flat on the table, it's less likely to get splashes or spillages of messy ingredients all over it.

As a decorative enhancement, it's really useful too. You could use it to hold open a coffee-table book at a particularly inspiring page or even to hold up an art print. In our house - and if you've got young kids you'll know what I mean !! - we're more arts and crafts than fine arts, so the girls loved using it to prop up and put on display their latest drawings and paintings !

Sophie found it really useful when doing her homework for propping up the textbook. It took up less space on the table and gave her a flat surface for writing on (she always tends to put her exercise book on the text book and keeps writing, even if she's over the inner spine which makes her writing go all wobbly !). It was also handy for holding open her plastic folder which always usually annoys her because it keeps closing while she's trying to copy from it !

It's a really useful product that can be used in a variety of ways and the design has clearly been well thought-out. I wasn't suprprised to read that this was designed by someone who really needed it and had tried out and improved on other similar products : "The Foldaway Bookrest was designed by husband and wife, Spencer and Sacha Berger, after Sacha developed Repetitive Strain Injury. RSI prevented Sacha from reading comfortably and finding the majority of book rests on the market were ugly in appearance and cumbersome to carry around, they came up with a simple and sleek design."

It's certainly attractively presented, arriving in a chocolate brown velvet drawstring pouch. It is crafted from strong, durable oak and, when folded, is only 12 inches long and weighs just 160g. So if you want to give one for Christmas, it'll be easy to wrap ! Sounds like a good idea to me for Granny and Grandpa if you're fed up of buying slippers and chocolates every year !

RRP : £15.99

star rating : 4/5

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