I get the appeal of classic texts like the Dover math series -- I've got plenty of them on my own bookshelf. But the reality of most fields of study is that a 6

I get the appeal of classic texts like the Dover math series -- I've got plenty of them on my own bookshelf. But the reality of most fields of study is that a 60+ year old textbook just doesn't cut it in terms of topics covered, advances in the field, or modern pedagogical practice. As a unversity professor myself, I am always seeking out open publishing or less expensive options for my students. The sad reality is that while there are some nice "open publishing" textbooks available, and I try and use these for my own classes whenever appropriate, very few such efforts can match the quality of a professionally edited textbook in terms of breadth of topics covered, quality of illustrations and figures, referencing to the recent literature, etc. I wish it was otherwise, but that's currently the state of affairs in the sub-fields my work touches on (genetics, genomics, computational biology). For senior students and grad students I can usually draw on the primary literature rather than a textbook per se, but that's rough going for most students in their first few years of university.