I've got this one (ie. blue) as well as the 'standard stripes' one, and they both do a fantastic job. I actually prefer the stripes one as it's a lot more fun and the wood is stained a darker colour, which I think looks better. I put the blue one in my university office as it looks a bit more serious! I find that it really helps with my reading (I'm doing a phd in English and find it so useful to have my hands free to make notes, and also find that I get through the material a lot quicker somehow). I really like this design over most of the others too as it props the book up by a good couple of inches, which makes it a better reading height as well as angle (which adjusts to suit you). It's easy to turn the pages, and the extendable page holders allow for really thick books, if needed. I'd choose this over the others out there (I've tried the Acacia Wood Book Stand / Lectern (which didn't look nearly as good as the images suggest and didn't hold the pages open), and the Easy Read book holder stand, which is very good at keeping the pages wide open, no need to flatten them first, but wasn't a good height and sometimes tilted to one side a bit, as well as being a bit of a pain if you are skimming a book and therefore want to turn the pages often).