Have you tried them frozen? Used to get the mini-mini versions and freeze them. The full size bars are too big to manage frozen. Been ages since I’ve had one. I went off sugar some time ago.

As u/CanthinMinna said, paperbacks are glued, not stitched as hardbacks are traditionally made. Paperbacks are made from much cheaper paper and ink. I have old paperbacks from the 60s where the paper is fragile and discolored. I remember reading paperbacks where the covers fell off, pages fell out, and the ink reeked of kerosene. Some of those have been replaced by special edition hardbacks. I had a couple of paperbacks rebound as hardbacks. It was a wasted effort, the books are unreadable because of the deterioration of the paper.

As my income increased, I switched from buying paperbacks to hardbacks. Mass produced hardbacks have decreased significantly in quality. They’re mostly glued now rather than stitched. Not much better production than paperbacks. The paper quality is typically better and I don’t smell the ink. I have hardbacks purchased in the 60s that are generally in excellent condition.

Library books have special, heavy duty bindings. Part of the reason they hold up toto multiple readers as well as they do.

My current purchases have switched from hardbacks to ebooks. I no longer have the room to store thousands of books.

would it have been possible to pick up the clues.

This is where I have fun rereading mysteries. Picking up on the foreshadowing layered into the story. Seeing what I may have missed when first reading. Knowing who done it doesn’t distract from the story, it just makes the nuggets and hints more fun.

This is when a loaded ereader is a real blessing.

OMG! This dude’s still high if he thinks that’s a luminous font.