Buyer beware! This is an expensive book to purchase even though it appears to be a worthy addition to my professional library, so I chose to obtain a copy via Inter-Library Loan to assure myself it was really worth the $67 price tag before plunking down my $$. I'm not sure how this book made it through Springer's "quality control." The print throughout the book looks like stuff I print at home when my toner cartridge is nearly empty. The print is very small AND it is not crisp. In fact, the print is a faded black. Worst of all, many of the figures (and there ARE many figures) are printed with various shades of gray backgrounds (so a figure might have five progressive gray blocks and the first will be dark (I use that descriptor loosely!) gray and the remaining 4 background blocks will be progressively lighter shades of gray. They all have white typeface. Many of these figures are completely illegible. I'm guessing the CONTENT of the book is worth the price, but the extremely poor-quality print job renders this book one for the discount bin. Springer gets an "F" on production. If I were one of the authors I'd be REALLY peeved!