Gritin Book Light Review: The Prepper Light Hiding in Plain Sight?

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Type “torch” into Amazon and you’ll get hundreds, if not thousands, of everyday carry lights promising ridiculous amounts of brightness. Some of them could light up your whole street. In a power cut, is that actually what you need? The Gritin Book Light makes the counter-argument: small is beautiful, and sometimes the obvious answer is the one everyone misses.

I own a Gritin Book Light, and it’s what gave me the idea for this review. It’s a rechargeable clip-on reading light with variable brightness, a range of colour temperatures, a short charge time, a long run time, a clip that doubles as a stand and a head you can angle wherever you want it. So who’s the fool here: the prepper with the “tactical” torch, or the librarian who happens to own something better suited to the job, for a fraction of the price?

Why the Gritin Book Light Beats a Tactical Torch Indoors

Most of what you do in a power cut happens within arm’s length. Reading, cooking on a camping stove, finding the candles you swore were in the kitchen drawer, sorting out a child who’s decided the dark is now a problem, getting into bed without walking into the wardrobe. None of that needs a beam that reaches the end of the road.

A big tactical torch throws light a long way, which is great for searching a field and useless for reading a book. Point it at a page and the glare bounces straight back into your eyes. Point it at the ceiling and you get a harsh, flat glow that eats the battery. The Gritin Book Light does the opposite. It puts soft, even light exactly where you’re working and nowhere else, so the battery goes further and your eyes aren’t fighting it.

That’s the real case for good power cut lighting. It isn’t about how many lumens you have. It’s about having the right light, in the right place, for long enough to see you through the outage.

Easier on the Eyes: Brightness and Colour You Can Dial In

The Gritin Book Light is designed for reading, and you notice it straight away. The light isn’t too bright or too white, which is my main complaint about most head torches. It’s easier on the eyes, and because both the brightness and the colour can be adjusted, you can dial it in to whatever suits you and the situation.

The Gritin Book Light’s main reading light uses seven full-spectrum LEDs with a high colour rendering index, so colours look natural, close to daylight. It has six brightness levels from 5% up to 100%, and six colour temperatures running from a warm 2200K amber through to a crisp 7000K daylight white. Hold a button down and both brightness and colour adjust smoothly between the presets, so you’re not stuck with someone else’s idea of “comfortable”.

In practice that means you can go warm and dim for reading in bed or keeping the kids settled during an evening power cut, then switch to cool and bright when you need to read a fuse box label or find something small that’s rolled under the sofa. The Gritin Book Light also remembers your last brightness and colour settings when you turn it off, so it comes back on exactly how you left it. In the dark that matters more than it sounds, because you’re not fumbling through every mode to get back to the one you wanted.

Four separate buttons control power, brightness, colour and the torch. That’s simple enough to work by feel, and you won’t need to dig out the instructions by candlelight.

A Clip On Reading Light That Keeps Your Hands Free

This is where the Gritin Book Light really earns its place in a power cut kit. Because you can clip it to something, your hands stay free for whatever you’re actually doing.

On the Gritin Book Light, the head rotates 90° left and right with fixed positions, tilts 60° downwards, and the clip itself rotates 150°. It’s built to grip books, desks, headboards, bookshelves and even camping tents, and the clip also lets it stand on a flat surface. Clip it to a kitchen shelf and you’ve got a task light over the camping stove. Clip it to the headboard and you can read until the power comes back. Clip it to a tent pole and it’s a camping light too.

It’s also a great alternative to a head torch if you just don’t like wearing one. Plenty of people find a strap round the head uncomfortable, or simply don’t want to look like they’re about to go potholing in their own hallway. You can also clip the Gritin Book Light to yourself: on a shirt pocket, a jacket collar or a bag strap. You still get hands-free light that goes where you go, with none of the strap and none of the glare in the face of whoever you’re talking to.

The Torch Built Into the Base

There’s one more trick. The Gritin Book Light also has a separate white-light torch in its base, using a single LED for focused light.

The Gritin Book Light’s torch dims smoothly to whatever brightness you need, and a double-click switches it to strobe mode. I’ll be honest: the torch is OK, but it eats the battery much quicker. In my experience you get around six to eight hours per charge from the torch, against up to 160 hours from the reading light on low. So I use it as a backup torch, not my go-to torch. The torch and the reading light can’t run at the same time, but in real use you’re only ever after one or the other anyway.

Where it really makes sense is next to the bed. As a book light, that’s where the Gritin Book Light naturally lives, and if the power goes in the night, the torch in the base gets you up and across the room to find your proper torch. Who wants a head torch on show on the bedside table when a book light looks far more at home there?

Battery Life and Charging: Have a Plan B

Inside the Gritin Book Light is a 1000mAh battery that gives up to 160 hours of run time on the lowest setting. That’s days of evening reading from one charge. It charges over USB-C, and a full charge takes about 1.75 hours. Four green indicator lights show how much battery is left, flashing while it charges and staying solid once it’s full, so you’re never guessing.

The honest con is that it’s rechargeable. Once the battery runs out, if the power is still off, you’ll need a way to recharge the Gritin Book Light. There’s no swapping in a couple of AAs from the drawer.

The good news is that it’s easy to plan for, because it charges quickly from almost anything with a USB-C cable. A power bank will top it up many times over. A USB socket in the car will charge it while you’re driving. A portable power station or a small solar panel will keep it going indefinitely. If you already keep a charged power bank for your phone, you’ve solved the problem. Just make sure the light is on your charging list, not an afterthought.

Where It Fits in Your Power Cut Lighting

The Gritin Book Light isn’t trying to light a whole room, and it doesn’t need to. Think of your power cut lighting in layers: something for the room, something for moving around, and something for close-up work. This fills the close-up layer brilliantly, and the torch in the base is a handy backup to get you to your main torch.

Because the Gritin Book Light is so small and so cheap, it’s also an easy one to buy more than once. Keep one on the bedside table, one in the kitchen drawer and one in the car. Each one does its job, and none of them will break the bank.

The Gritin Book Light also comes in nine different body colours. Pick a bright one that stands out in a dark drawer or a cluttered bag, so you can find it quickly when the lights go out. If you’ve got kids, give them a different colour each, so everyone knows which light is whose and there’s no squabbling over it at bedtime, power cut or not.

Gritin Book Light Review: The Verdict

The Gritin Book Light is the prepper light hiding in plain sight. It’s sold as a bedtime reading lamp, but the things that make it good for reading are exactly what make it good in a power cut. It gives soft, adjustable light that’s easy on the eyes, runs for a very long time on low, keeps your hands free, and has a backup torch built in to get you out of bed and over to your main torch.

You do need a way to recharge it if the power stays off, but a power bank or the car sorts that out. For most power cut jobs, this little clip on reading light will serve you better than a torch that can light up the whole street, and at a fraction of the price. Whether you’re the prepper or the librarian, it’s well worth having one in the drawer.

What the Rest of the Team Think

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• Soft, full-spectrum light that’s easy on the eyes, designed for reading rather than dazzling
• Six brightness levels and six colour temperatures (2200K to 7000K), with smooth adjustment in between
• The Gritin Book Light clips to shelves, headboards, tents or your own clothing, keeping your hands free
• Up to 160 hours on low, with a quick 1.75-hour USB-C charge
• Backup torch in the base, ideal for getting out of bed and over to your main torch
• Remembers your last settings, so it comes back on exactly how you left it
• Nine body colours, so it’s easy to spot, and each child can have their own

Cons

• Rechargeable only: if the power stays off you’ll need a power bank, car or solar panel to recharge the Gritin Book Light
• The torch and reading light can’t be used at the same time
• Made for close-up light, not for lighting a whole room
• The torch uses the battery much faster (around 6 to 8 hours per charge), so it’s a backup torch rather than your main one

Frequently Asked Questions