Paperbacks are my true love when it comes to reading. I dislike hardback books. I tend to think that most book purists like the hardback and see it as the "proper" edition of the book but for me you can't beat the raw, natural simplicity, size and weight of the paperback. It's the true version of it. Hardbacks are podgy, heavy, expensive, over sized tomes that take up too much space on your bookshelf. And as for E-books...
Sure, the hardback is traditionally where a lot of money is made in the initial run of sales but I never really agreed with it in principle. As a reader I am much more likely to pick up a paperback for £7.99 or so over a hardback for £18.99. Two paperbacks for the price of one hardback? I was sold simply at the economics of the situation.
And the size, weight and feel of a paperback is far more comfortable and convenient. How many of us will actually take a full-sized hardback book onto a train or commute or to a beach or pool? The paperback is king here. You can fit a paperback in your back pocket.
So you're not going to find a great deal of heavyweight reference tomes in paperback, but then those are for the home library. Any serious research is usually done is a dedicated environment where there is space and time to spread out papers and large books on a table.
E-books are good, it's very handy to be able to carry around hundreds of books at your disposal, be it for when you simply want to change what you are reading due to mood or you need reference or simply a dictionary. I know a girl that works in a library that was angry and adamant that E-books were the work of the devil and would never replace real books. Well, she was both right and wrong. E-books are here to stay and for the good of us all. More people are reading now simply because they have quick and easy access to books through their kindles, I-pads, phones and the like. They can instantly switch over to the exact page they were reading, read as much or as little as they want and put it back down easily. And they carry it with them everywhere. I know people that are very busy indeed with their jobs and families that still find time to read due to their Kindle.
So think back to all the times you fell in love with a book, it will most likely be somewhere you were sitting comfortably and in your hands would have been a paperback book. Don't disrespect the humble paperback, these books are where the planet's reading is done.