Do you own a Kindle or other handheld reading device? Have you ever read a novel through a text messaging service? How about simply an online book?  During eBook Week, you can celebrate the portability of these books, reading them from anywhere from the Subway to your lunch break at work.

Besides their portability, however, just how great are eBooks? After all, they don’t have that wonderful, old book smell (or new book smell, for that matter). They aren’t that great for reading in the bathtub or bed—unless you get used to the handheld sort of thing. And many of them, as I’ve discovered, aren’t of great quality to begin with; for example, certain books that you might read as full versions may have similar books marketed as eBooks that turn out to be shorter and not nearly as well-developed, particularly in the fiction world.

You also can’t simply pass around eBooks the same way you can regular books. OK, so if you read a free story online, you can share its link—but you can’t, say, finish it and leave it at the airport during your travels for a fellow traveler to pick up and enjoy. (And isn’t that fun to do? I always leave a little message or quote in the front cover, making sure to note to the next reader to “pass it on” to someone else when he or she is finished.)

However, we can’t deny that the environmental benefit is there; how many trees could we save, for example, by simply using eBooks rather than using billions (okay, way more than billions) of pages of paper every year?

There’s also the benefit of free books. More and more free eBooks are added every day to the Internet. At sites like FictionWise, you can join for free and have immediate access to tons of free books. While you’re not likely to be able to download the latest bestselling fiction novel for free, you’ll never have a book shortage if you decide to never pay for a book again, either. Of course, on the downside, there’s the risk that any site you fall in love with could go under. My daughter and I experienced this with LookyBook.com, which we adored until it fell under from lack of monetary support. (And that site was particularly wonderful, as it housed hundreds of picture books you could actually “turn pages” in online, as if you were really turning the pages yourself.)

Which do you prefer—traditional books or eBooks? If you’ve not tried an eBook yet, perhaps this is a good week to start. Give it a whirl and see how you like it.