I think you'll get more use out of the silver than the snakeskin at the end of the day, glad you kept them. The book ending aspect is spectacular.
After debating for ages, and driving around with them in my car to return, I ended up keeping these in the snakeskin. I love the look, but they are just not my most comfortable boots (or my most comfortable Blondos). It's that thing with how it hits my shin that we discussed a while back on the forum...
That being said, I wore them all last weekend in some pretty heavy rain, and walking through mud and grass, and loved that they were fashionable and waterproof!