I'm at a loss. I have two end tables flanking the sofa, both have large reading lamps on them. There's plenty of light to read but the sofa table seems like a black hole not having a lamp on it because the sofa floats and there's a large dark area behind it.

When I did put a lamp on the sofa table, it didn't look right having three lamps in a row, and our sofa is long, too.

I'm wondering if I had a bunch of pretty junk on top of the sofa table with a lamp in the middle, would it look better and not look out of place?

I'd take a picture but that means I'd have to clean first. :)

I'm liking the specialty lamp idea. Something that doesn't look like a traditional lamp but still gives off light.

I would do one or the other, but not both...
on second thought, I would not!
Do you even need the end tables, if you have sofa tables?

In our family room, the sectional has two sofa tables behind it. Each has a lamp, and each has plenty of room for drinks, etc.

Or maybe, like olychick suggests, a an old-fashioned hurricane lamp, particularly if the end table lamps have silk shades.

I have since gotten boxes to hide the interminable stack of newspapers and magazines in that bookcase...looks so much better.

End tables w/lamps are a must. There are chairs on each side of the end tables so the lamp will need to be shared if someone is sitting in one of the chairs.

I definitely wouldn't do two lamps on the S. table, that would be overkill because of the other two.

If anyone else has pictures, please share!

Here is one where they did both.....lamps are very different in style and scale and the tables are very different heights.