Quick primer on book binding and quality. The very best and most durable bindings are hardcover or leather-bound books with sewn bindings. The best collector books, like Easton Press Editions, are leather over hardcover, (...though they can just be soft leather-bound, also, like the highest quality Bibles. Cambridge and Allans come to mind.) with sewn bindings and acid free paper. They are made to very high standards and will hold up to good use and will retain their value very well. The downside to these kind of editions is the price point. Easton Press books, for instance, sell at high prices.
In my opinion, todays hardcover books are too cheaply made to invest the often outrageous prices that publishers ask for. A brand new novel by any of the current popular novelists will be about $25.00, or so. But, almost all publishers print books on cheap, high acid paper and bind them with paper over card covers and the bindings are what is called "perfect-bound," which is anything but perfect. The pages are basically just set into glue and the whole text block is then glued onto spine and end papers, which are also glued onto the cover. Cheap materials, cheap binding methods, low quality.
Books printed before the seventies were, for the most part, all well bound, with sewn bindings, cloth covers and reasonably good quality paper. If you collect books by authors from the pre-seventies era, be sure to try to find well preserved, good quality early editions of their work. If you collect books by contemporary authors, be more careful. Some authors, like Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King will keep their value and even increase in value over the years. Take a good look at the prices of their first edition books on eBay, for example. I saw a single volume of Kings Gunfighter Series go for several hundred dollars, recently. Other authors, you might have to guess on whether their books are worth spending high dollars to obtain. And then, you'll have to treat them gently, so as not to break their bindings or crack their hinges, as happend to your brother's book. If you just are looking to obtain sturdy editions for your own personal enjoyment, to read over and over again, go for the hardcovers, but treat them kindly and don't expect them to necessarily hold their value. Hope this helps a bit.