I got the Lord of the Rings "pocket" set about a year ago and I really liked everything about them. For reference, here's someone else holding "The Hobbit" with

I got the Lord of the Rings "pocket" set about a year ago and I really liked everything about them. For reference, here's someone else holding "The Hobbit" with the other books visible too: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VM9ZInBNPw4/hqdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VM9ZInBNPw4/hqdefault.jpg The covers are some kind of faux-leather so they fall in between a hardback and paperback book; they are flexible, but the covers don't fold like a paperback. The binding was, in my opinion, excellent; you couldn't lay the book open, but you also didn't feel like you were cracking the spine when you were reading. The paper is quite thin but tough enough, and I didn't find that the other side showed through or anything. They were harder to read in dim light due to the smaller type, but they were laid out just like a full-sized book. IIRC I paid something like $30 for the set on Amazon. I would absolutely buy other books bound in the exact same way.