UKH

I have just spent an hour covering some guidebooks in sticky back plastic, a job I remember doing to my school books back in the 80s.

In the glory days, I did not have to do this, guide books had durable covers and were of a sensible size. 

So much for progress. 

Guidebooks are rubbish nowadays. Better off just as Apps.

New guidebooks are better for perusing at home but worse for actually using at the crag. 

Whoever decided that landscape format would be a good idea for a book that gets thrown into the bottom of a rucksack etc should be shot. 

My old pocket sized, plastic covered Gower and SE Wales guide regularly fell out of a pocket while climbing to be recovered later, floating in a rock pool. It usually got dried out in a chalk bag and eventually went from half inch, to two inches thick of card like paper. But it was always useable, the spine never split and it never lost a page. I still use it for a door-stop.