From the perspective of one whose only hand suffers from both arthritis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I rate the ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER, the BOOK BUTLER, and the Fellowes Book Lift Copyholder in 4 areas:
1. Ease of putting a book in the holder
2. Ease of turning pages
3. Holder's ability to keep book open
4. Major Strength/weakness
However, I will first describe the ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER, the BOOK BUTLER, and the Fellowes Book Lift Copyholder:
The ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER occupies 7.5 x 14 inches of table space, does not provide any elevation, but does permit placement of pegs at various widths and depths. It is very stable, and cannot tip over. Its pegs are not parallel to the book's pages, and are about 1 inch high.
The BOOK BUTLER occupies about 7 inches of width and about 8 in depth. Its pegs are 3/4 inch high, and the pegs are parallel to the pages, which means there is only a very minor chance of pages slipping past the pegs. This would only happen if the book was very stiff or if it were a hardback whose cover extended much more than 3/16th of an inch below the bottom of the pages. It has springs to hold its pegs snugly against the pages. The BB also elevates the book about 2 inches above the tabletop. Its metal rod may be inserted to hold books at two different angles: 45 or 15 degrees.
The The Fellowes Book Lift Copyholder is 11 5/8 wide and has an adjustable angle that can be varied to 5 or 6 positions. It folds into a flat easily carried sheet of plastic. It has holes to fit it into a 3 ring binder. Its two adjustable clips simply fail to hold anything but comic books open.
1. Ease of putting a book in the holder: ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER: 5/5; BOOK BUTLER 3/5; FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER 2/5. I had no difficulty inserting a book into the Roberts Book Holder, while I did find it awkward to do so with the BOOK BUTLER. However, even with only one hand and it has both arthritis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I was able to put a 2 1/2 inch thick hardback into the BOOK BUTLER without much difficulty. It is only a matter of figuring out how to do so with only 1 hand. The FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER simply will not hold anything thicker than a small soft cover book, although putting it in was not too hard.
2. Ease of turning pages: ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER: 3/5; BOOK BUTLER 5/5; FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER 2/5. While it was easy to turn pages with the Roberts Book Holder in most cases, there was some difficulty when the pegs were tightly pressed against the pegs. Also note that the pages must be lifted above the pegs, and can rip if carelessly handled. Compared to the BOOK BUTLER, this was noticeably inferior. Turning pages with the BOOK BUTLER involved lifting the hinged tab with one finger while turning the page with thumb and index finger. The FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER's tabs are hinged, and therefore flip easily out of the way for turning pages. However, the pages simply will not stay open.
3. Holder's ability to keep book open: ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER: 3/5; BOOK BUTLER 5/5; FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER 0/5. As mentioned earlier, the Roberts Book Holder has pegs that are at a slight angle to the pages, which may allow stiff books' pages to slip past the pegs. However, the BOOK BUTLER performed flawlessly. Note that I primarily use soft backs but not standard paperback novel-sized books. Manga books work fine. The FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER fails almost every time to hold the book open. It would work fine with comic books as long as they are stapled in the middle and very thin.
4. Major strength/weakness: The ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER's major weakness is that its pegs are easily lost. Note that replacement pegs are available: Roberts Book Holder: Book holder replacement pegs - package of 2. People with severe arthritis may have difficulty handling the pegs. A secondary weakness is the fact that the pegs are not parallel to the pages, thus, pages are more likely to slip past the pegs than they are in the BOOK BUTLER. The ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER's pegs being round can roll away if dropped on the floor. However, its stability upon the tabletop is much better than the BOOK BUTLER, whose major weakness is its narrow 7 inch width that may cause it to tip over when holding a wide and heavy book. I just tried a standard college textbook in the BOOK BUTLER. Placing it in open to its table of contents was noticeably more difficult than it would have been in the ROBERTS. With the textbook in the holder, flipping from the table of contents to the index is awkward, mainly because of the transfer of weight from one side to the other, and would require sliding it so that the bulk of the weight remains near the middle. The FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER's only redeeming feature is that it folds flat, and can be carried in a backpack without being in its box. Its adjustable clips simply flip over with the force of most any book. It is worthless as a book holder. It pales in comparison to either the BOOK BUTLER or the ROBERTS BOOK HOLDER. It is only good for thin magazines stapled in the middle. I had one that I used for a few years, but it simply was not worth the money. Nothing would stay open adequately. My attempts to stiffen the clips were futile.
I have carried the ROBERTS in its box a backpack for about a year, its box is worn but it is still in great shape because it stores flat. However, the BOOK BUTLER does not fold flat, and I would not think it would be appropriate for a backpack crammed full of heavy books, even if it were stored in its box. I have used the FELLOWES BOOK LIFT COPYHOLDER in that same backpack prior to buying the Roberts. There were no problems in carrying it, but since it fails in its purpose, why bother?
Thus, for home, I prefer the BOOK BUTLER; I am keeping the ROBERTS in my backpack; the FELLOWES is in the landfill. Fellowes Booklift Copyholder,Platinum (21100) - Large Book Holder - Textbook Holder - Book Holder - I Would Recommend It'
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