On the other hand searching for some text in a hundred physical books is very inconvenient.
Search _is_ one application where electronic copies definitely can surpass physical books.
Though if I know the author and work, I can often flip to a page pretty quickly. Especially if there's an index, but even without, I have a pretty good sense of where in a book a passage occurred, even position on the page.
readers are brilliant, and I much prefer taking a device than a book when I travel.
but the legal stuff is annoying. when I die my books are legally dubious - do they get handed down in my will or does the licence make them non-transferable. and removing drm is a criminal offence.
Also with an ereader travelling is fantastic. A library in less than 300 gm.
It's also easier to access that library on your phone which is with many people all the time.
Not to mention access for your kids to millions of legal free ebooks.