Last night, I stayed up far too late finishing the book "1632" by Eric Flint. I knew when I was through that the smart, sensible thing would be to go to bed and take full advantage of the 30, maybe 40 minutes of sleep available before my alarm clock was set to go off. Instead, hopeless addict that I am, I bought and downloaded the sequel and kept right on reading.

E-books have brought a huge change to my reading habits, which were already pretty excessive. For over 30 years now I've read roughly four or five books a week, barring acts of God or spousal pleading. People in the office are used to me walking the halls lost in fiction and they cheerfully try to trip me in the stairwell in a playful manner.

What kept my habit within reasonable limits wasn't the cost. I re-read favorite books quite often and used bookstores treat me the way a car salesman treats a lottery winner. It was the burden. Carrying more than one book at a time gets tricky without luggage or servants so I constantly had to avoid finishing too soon for fear of leaving myself adrift with – gasp! – nothing to read. This may sound trivial to you, but I assure you that morphine addicts aren't as careful with their doses as I was.

Then I bought a Palm Pilot and discovered e-books, which has been the literary equivalent of dropping me into a barrel of the stuff.

An e-book is simply an electronic document you can read on your computer or portable device. Reading this way isn't for everyone and there are plenty of times when I still prefer the solid feel of a physical book, especially when there are mosquitoes around, but the advantages of e-books are undeniable.

Right now, my handheld has over 50 books on it and that's only because I wanted to leave room for music. Now if I get tired of yet another childhood flashback in "The DaVinci Code," I can jump over to a Chuck Palahniuk novel and continue happily along, as long as I don't get the two plots confused.

I can carry around the entire works of Mark Twain if I so desire, and I do. I can add bookmarks without dog-earing the pages. Some reader programs allow you to underline passages or make notes. It is technically possible to dog-ear a Palm Pilot but you need a good pair of channel lock pliers and a metal-working vice.

By replacing some of my library with e-versions I've managed to empty almost a third of my room-sized, monolithic bookshelves and freed up space for…well, for the books that wouldn't fit there before.

I can read dirty books and no one will know, unless I giggle.

Free e-books abound on the Web. The Gutenberg Project is dedicated to putting text versions of public domain works online with over 10,000 volumes available, free for the taking. OK, many of them are dull, but hey, free stuff.

E-books are usually cheaper than the print versions and are occasionally available faster. Baen.com sells access to their e-books weeks before the printed version hits the shelves and by buying them electronically I can avoid the other science-fiction fans in the aisles. Some of those people are obsessive.

Thanks to the backlit screen I can read in total darkness. I could even use the light from my e-book to read a printed book in the dark, but that would be just weird.

And, best of all, I can buy them whenever the insomniacal whim strikes me, without putting on any more pants than necessary.

OK, there are drawbacks. Paperbacks still work even if your battery runs low. Not all books are available in e-form, and some of them are as expensive as the hardback version. Asking an author to autograph your e-book just isn't the same, somehow. You don't get that wonderful moldy, rotting-paper smell of a good used bookstore. And e-books are remarkably useless in propping up an uneven table leg.

But that's not enough to keep me from my e-ddiction. Expect to see me walking along with my portable library, happy in my fictional world. I'll be the one plummeting down the stairs.

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On the Web:

The Gutenberg Project: www.promo.net/pg

Baen Books: www.baen.com

Palm Digital Media: www.palmdigitalmedia.com