Hardbound volumes are better for a collection. Prettier to look at and smell. Nice tactile sensations.
But for pure reading, nothing beats an e-book reader.
A lot of us start to convert pretty quickly to electronic after we get readers. I'm not throwing out my FAVORITE hardcovers, but the rest of them are just gone. They take up too much space.
Give a Kindle a try, and I bet you only buy your absolute favorites in hardcover again.