I like to read, which means I tend to move around the house a lot. I’ll prop myself on a stiff side chair at the dining table, then later move to a soft lounge chair in the living room. I’ll get in bed for a while and rest my head on a down pillow, but, while this is comfortable for reading, this position makes me feel like I’m transgressing some boundary I shouldn’t be transgressing: it’s daytime, I’m dressed, what am I doing in bed? In the winter, I end up on the floor a lot, lying on my back in front of the fireplace—holding the book up as if it will take flight.

Reading Chair. Designed by Remi van Oers.

Illuminating Lounge Chair by Remi van Oers

Lucky for me, Dutch designer Remi van Oers has chosen to design a chair for the express purpose of reading. Part of his Reading Furniture Collection—a graduation project for the Design Academy of Eindhoven—the Reading Chair is a graceful, simple swoop of bent wood lined in soft fabric. The frame of the chair gives way to two interesting modifications to your standard lounge chair: a light and a bookshelf. From the top of the frame, a rectangular light pops up on one side, offering a built-in lighting system that’s specifically designed to illuminate the page. The curved bottom of the chair creates a cocoon for your books—a modern-day interpretation of that hole that used to grace 1950s school desks. The front legs of Reading Chair are extensions of the bent wood; on the back side, simple metal legs anchor the piece. All in all, this may be the furniture I need for my long stints of reading.

Via Chair Blog.