[slugboy]

Unfortunately, nowadays, even books bought directly from Springer are print-on-demand (PoD). This isn't so bad for paperbacks, but the hardcovers tend to be glued and have very stiff spines which make the books difficult to keep open (though this has improved of late).

Compare with the older Springer-produced PoD hardcovers that were Smyth-sewn and of very high quality.

[JackFr]

I had the binding break on a brand new Springer math textbook about 25 years ago which was very disappointing cause that book was expensive.