Hardback or paperback?

Carol Ann Duffy's The Bees is available in various editions, but the choice I had (at the Buxton bookshop where I found it heavily reduced) was between a pale blue hardback, overlaid with a gold pattern, or the same pattern on a white paperback. They were the same price.

Although the former seemed like it was meant to be the better edition (hardbacks carry status and have 'primacy' in terms of publication), I chose the latter. As well as preferring the contrast of colours, I have a long-standing preference for paperback poetry. It feels humbler, less grandiose, and lines up more neatly on the shelves (where it also takes less space).

Perhaps if I bought fewer books, I'd prefer hardbacks. But I'm often caught between preferring the paperback, but not wanting to wait for it to come out (I've got a couple of Paul Muldoon's books in hardback for that reason). Sometimes I'd happily pay the premium hardback price if I could get the paperback instead…