I think some of you kids are missing the point.
MMPBs were cheap and portable. Indeed, the first line of MMPBs produced in the US were called Pocket Books. If you were a person who wouldn't leave the house without something to read, they were life-changing. Their defects resulted from their virtues.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't read one now. But they were
great. They made it possible to own a bunch of books and always to have something to read. Why disparage them? And they could still serve that exact purpose, too. As well as being lendable and giftable.