ABOUT THIS PHOTO:
I have used candles, headlamps, and at least one portable camping light to provide lighting for reading and writing at night in camp. A drawback of all those tools is the glare of the lamp. By contrast, this simple system is easy on the eyes. It is a gallon milk jug filled with water with a headlamp pointing into the water. One gallon is 3.78 liters.

This picture was taken inside my Subaru station wagon while I was lying in bed, working on my trip journal. The system works well on a picnic table too.

ABOUT SYSTEM 2:
My second system came into being in mid-2005 when I built a carpeted plywood floor in the Subaru. It occupied all of the car’s interior except for the driver’s seat, the center console, and the floor area of the front passenger seat. This required me to remove the front passenger seat and the bench-style back seat, pretty easy to do because of the simple way they were attached to the floor and their light weight.

The new floor eliminated the discomforts, and eased the space problems, of the first system. Now I was able to lie parallel to the car's long axis, lessening the need to move things around for sleeping. This issue became even less bothersome when I discovered I could store things during the night on the hood of my car (a tarp kept them dry).