Essential travel tool: the book light

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx

This trip confirmed it. The small clip-on book light is now on my list of travel essentials. How do I use thee, libris lux? Let me count the ways...

• When traveling alone, meals are nearly always accompanied by reading and restaurants are often dimly lit. While mood lighting might help the appearance of both one's meal and dinner date, it's no boon to readers.
• I started using a booklight when camping. Stil do. Gets dark at night in the wilderness. Really.
• Many hotel rooms have poor bedside reading lamps, lamps on the "wrong" side of the bed, or switches to reading lights across the room. The book light makes a handy little emergency flashlight when looking for light switches as well.
• As only a semi-touch typist, I find public computers often have unfamiliar keyboards that may be difficult to see. My little book light perches nicely above the keyboard as well.
• Usually airplane seats have a good reading light that can be adjusted perfectly. And I use it. Unless, like on my last flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis, the light was not working. Whenever I find something like a light not working on jet, it makes me wonder what else might not be working - like in the cockpit or engine. Doesn't pay to think too long or too hard about that one.

I have used in the past two other kinds of LED lights: the strap-on (makes one feel like one's wearing a jock strap on one's head) and a baseball cap with the LED lights build into the brim (works great, looks nerdy).

But generally I use one of these two models. The flex neck is better for the Kindle since it can be adjusted to avoid any glare on the screen.

But the small flat light is fine for paper book reading and viewing computer keyboards.

Neither are terribly expensive (about $10) and available at Target, Barnes & Noble, and, I suppose, other fine retailers.

Don't leave home without one. Better to light a single book light than to curse the small print.

Leaving the computer in left luggage

And it's not Photoshopped!

Conference work (and fun) for me is almost done. Two workshops and a keynote with an afternoon trip to the Pyramids of Giza, a trip to the Egyptian Museum, and a felucca dinner cruise over the past two days has left me ready for a few days of R&R. Tonight is the "Gallabya Party" for the conference. (We are suppose to bring a camera and money, but my dress-like garment does not include pockets. What's a psuedo-Egyptain to do?

Tomorrow's flight to Luxor to get on the cruise ship leaves at 5:20 am. On board for four nights and back to Cairo next Sunday. I am NOT taking my laptop.

I'll check in with the rest of the world in a week or so.

What I like about Cairo

Here is the best thing about Cairo. People love having their pictures taken:

Here's my method. Smile. Point at my camera. Point at the person I want to take a picture of. 90 percent say yes. I say shukran (Arabic for thank you.) For the 10% who say no, I say mafi mushkula (no problem). And I show them their photo on the LCD of the camera.

These pictures were all taken on a 45 minute late afternoon walk today. Amazing the worlds you can see when you get two blocks away from your 5 start hotel.

Conference starts in earnest tomorrow...