Just included in WIRED Magazine’s December 2009 issue and its annual gift guide, Lili Lite is the bright idea from Studio Smeets Design, a furniture and lighting company out of Amsterdam, founded and headed by Thijs Smeets, graduate of industrial product design from The Hague. Like all things from The Netherlands, that little country with large plans (See Walking Table and Maarten Baas), Lili Lite mixes innovation with usefulness. That blend is the starting point for Studio Smeets Design:

Lili Lite. Designed by Studio Smeets Design.

“Good design isn’t just what looks cool, it’s a calculated and balanced blend of form and function that serves a specific purpose.” This clever lamp/bookshelf was even part of the WIRED art gallery exhibition in New York from November to December 2009.

Does it deserve the attention it’s gotten from the uber-cool WIRED, arbiter of all things trendy and technotronic? In fact, it does. Actually, Lili Lite belongs to the truly geeky. A reading lamp, bookmark, and bookshelf, Lili Lite is quite smart: “A sensor turns off the light when an open book is placed on the shelf. When the book is picked up again, the light automatically turns on.” It can also be worked the old-fashioned way—manually, by turning a switch. Shaped like a checkmark with a tail, Lili Light serves as a bookmark: when you rest the book you’re reading on the right side, the upside down V keeps your book on its rightful page. On the left side of the shelf, you can keep other books on your immediate to-read list. I want one for my bedroom, but I also want one for every reading chair in my current house—and in my dream library (sadly, like Shangri-La and other utopias, it exists only in my mind).