Your assumption is correct, I keep it in a backpack, I'll probably try and find one of those plastic wraps you can get for paperbacks that keep them good but still a hardback would be perfect.

Wow, I'm impressed-- looking at my 4th ed the other day, which has gone back & forth to Japan twice, I was thinking how good the binding was to have held up for five years.

I glanced at U of Hawaii's page (5th ed), Nanzan's (4th ed), and Amazon, and none show hardcovers.  You could always get a vise, a power drill, and some bolts and rebind it yourself.  ^_^

Who needs a hardback cover?

Where were they printed?  Japan has some nice printers, and I wonder if the shift to UHawaii has resulted in a shoddier job.  Just curious.

And that would be the culprit.

I've have a 4th edition for about 4 going on 5 years and it's held up really well from several trips across the sea, to a recent beer spill.

My 4th edition got heavily rained on. I carried that with me everywhere I went for months. Since I finished, I've used it to lift up my monitor a few inches so I could see it better. The pages are a bit swollen, but otherwise it's fine.  I didn't think of spilling beer on it, but I could try that next. Obviously the 5th edition is defective. I saw it in the bookstore and it did seem pretty flimsy. Probably you just can't open it very wide without breaking the binding.

It's too bad so few books are made with "rings" (whatever it's called), I guess because it costs more to produce. Many times I had to place weights to hold the book open while I was thinking up the mnemonics. I would have paid more just to get that kind of binding.

ファブリス wrote:

Many times I had to place weights to hold the book open while I was thinking up the mnemonics.

For holding books open with no hands I use these: Easy Book Clip.
I've never seen them for sale in a shop; I make my own by bending wire coat hangers.

Jarvik7 wrote:

skinnyneo wrote:

I've have a 4th edition for about 4 going on 5 years and it's held up really well from several trips across the sea, to a recent beer spill.

It looks like your copy is even a used copy from a university bookstore (multiple barcode stickers on back - look exactly like the used barcode stickers at every uni bookstore I've been to).

Haha!  Actually yeah I forgot about that!  Who knows what it's actually been through.

The 5th edition is made of materials that self-destruct when they come into contact with air.

I've only had my 5th edition two weeks. I've used it a few times, and this limited "abuse" has already caused it to almost split in half. Not to mention the fact that (like many paperbacks) the cover opens almost all the way when it's just sitting on a desk. I've had to use paperweights to keep it down, and I'm afraid to open it all the way, lest it split completely in two.

I previously had a 15 year old copy borrowed form a university library. It had been checked out dozens of times on just the card that was in it, and except for some color fading, it was like new. I would already say that it was in better condition than my new book. It's very disappointing, as I was hoping to lend it to my girlfriend when I was done with it, but it looks like it might not make it until the end of my studies.

Just for reference, I bought it at Maruzen in Nagoya.