The real reason....why Sears was better....

(from Voices of American Homemakers)

crappy paper?

Sears book was printed on paper like phone books used, close to newspaper.
Monkey Ward was a lithographer book.
BIG difference in paper used.

Phone books were rarely available because the phone company took the old one back when they gave you a new book.  Most people didn't have phones.

If that book sat out there awhile, through summer heat, the pages would seem to get hard?    Then  while waiting to finish, you could read, plus take the sheet and crumple it up, several times to make it a bit more pliable.   Hurt less, that way.