Time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Good Idea: Reading a book on your way to work.

Bad Idea: Reading a book while driving to work.

Taking a book to read is perfect (if not essential) for the bus or train or even walking. But it can be tiresome to carry them around. Especially when you're a little squirrel.

Enter the e-book. A few years before the dot-com bust, e-books were supposed to put librarians and bookstores out of business. They were going to kill the paperback, the printed page. It turns out that electronic letters just don't do it for many readers.

For the most part, I'm one of them. It is still one of my favorite things to find a corner in a bookstore or library and sit down to read a new book.

But... I have to carry this little big phone with me at all times for work (you never know when you will encounter a nut emergency), and I like to travel light. So I gave the eBooks a try.

And I really like them. In fact, I have become addicted to ManyBooks.net (or, on your smart phone, mnybks.net). Little files with free Project Guttenberg, Creative Commons, and Public Domain books. No charge, no dead trees, as many books as you can read (up to 20,208) in handy formats to match your electronic gizmo of choice.

Things that are great about ebooks:

• You can read in the dark (backlighting, people)
• Fit in your pocket (or laptop, if you prefer)
• Tiny pages (finish a 4,000+ page book in a week)
• You look busy or important staring at your cellphone
• Finally read all of those classics you should have read in High School
• You don't inadvertently make eye contact with a crazy person on the bus
• Try out books you might never buy otherwise
• No trees were harmed in the making of these ebooks
• Did I mention they're free?