My 2009 Blurb book arrived

I've been doing a Photo-A-Day this year. I'm making an album with one photo per page. It was working so well I decided to go back to 2009 and do the same with whatever photos I took that year. I went with Blurb because most of the other printers are limited to 100 or so pages. I struggled to limit my book to 160 pages. Blurb will print up to 440 pages, but that is with thinner, poorer quality paper.

The wrap around cover looks great:

The pages are fine, but lack a crisp black compared to Shutterfly and Momento books that I've printed previously.

This is how thick 160 pages looks:

It was fine. They will print up to 440 pages but only in their thinner paper. I'm not sure how thick such a book would be, but that's how many pages I expect my 2010 album to have!

And here's the spine. The last thing I looked at when my book arrived. The thing I obviously forgot to check before sending for print!!!

Oh well!

Some observations (that I've added in response to Katrina's comment below):
I did "Standard landscape" which is 8 1/4"x10" (actual page image sizes are 9.6" x 8.2"). The trim guides and bleed areas are very clearly indicated and it was accurately trimmed. When you mouse over the photo area it pops up the exact pixel dimensions which is great. I was able to assemble all of my pages in a folder (named with the date - mm dd.jpg) and ran an automatic import into the book. So quick! The software was VERY easy to use. The dust cover was trimmed about 2mm (1/8") shorter than the book - and that is not right!

So, if you're doing a photo-a-day, what are you going to do with them?!
Has anyone printed a book thicker than 160 pages?!

Esther.