Springer Books

Does anyone own a book published by Springer in the last few years that's not been cheaply printed and bound? (Ebooks don't count!) I'm wondering if I've just been rather unlucky or if they're all that way.

I've had the same experience with two Springer books:

(1) Stochastic Approximation and Recursive Algorithms and Applications by Kushner and Yin. The front cover opens... and opens. The back of the binding comes right off the back edge of the pages. It obviously was glued on, and not with high-quality glue. There's an auxilliary backing, so the thing is still holding together. But sheesh!

(2) Adaptive Algorithms and Stochastic Approximations by Benveniste, Metivier, and Priouret. Why have a page 333, when you can have page 331 twice!? Dorks!

Shortly after posting message 1, I bought the second edition of Linear Algebra Done Right, and it's quite nicely put together. It seems to be a rare exception, however.

In other words, they finally did a book right, and they wanted everyone to know!

I have purchased a fair number of MyCopy cheaply produced softcover books from them and they always meet quality expectations. I have a 800 pager that I know will eventually fall apart, just because of the size, but other than that my experience have been good. Same with used copies of hardback Springer books.

On the other hand my hardcover copy of The Forgotten Revolution by
Lucio Russo still smells terribly.

And, please, can anyone tell me why The Forgotten Revolution touchstone points to Frankenstein ?

The Forgotten Revolution

Because they do that sometimes. You have to click on others and fix it.

Thanks, MarthaJeanne. The others too are a mixed lot. Now I can wonder what is behind the choice and the ordering. It is not a matter of just anything with `forgotten' and `revolution' being picked up.

>5 LibrarianLawrence:

When I pay the $24.99 discounted price for a MyCopy book, my expectations are pretty low. Full price for an average Springer book is closer to $100, and even as their build quality has plummeted their prices have remained high.

I did find another recent Springer book that looked like it had been professionally printed: Abbott's Understanding Analysis, 2nd edition. It was, however, on a shelf in the campus bookstore with 20+ markedly inferior copies, so a good copy of it is not something you can count on if you buy it sight unseen.

>5 LibrarianLawrence: "Same with used copies of hardback Springer books."

Yeah, used copies of older Springer books is a good way to avoid the shoddy workmanship of late. (Not counting ebooks) I own 75 Springer books, but only 4 published since 2010.