The undergrad books not so much. There are tons of colorful padding. Pages after pages that describe what the next set of pages will describe, advertisement for apps and websites. In fact good 10% of the pages/area seem like marketing copies.

It seems like the publishers feel guilty about charging how much they do and try to add bulk in weight and volume to make the customers feel not so bad -- sugarcoat the rip off somewhat.

Sometimes it is so frustrating that it makes me want to yell -- stop faffing around and get on with it.

This is a recent phenomenon though. American books from the 70s or 80s do not have this problem.