Although I think Atkins is an excellent text, so is ours, Leidler, Meiser and Sanctuary (LMS), Physical chemistry
http://www.mchmultimedia.com/store/index.html. It is now an ebook and whereas hard copy texts cost about $150, you can get modules of LMS for $14.99. It also has much more than a hard copy book with built in multimedia, interactions, really easy navigation, and integrated to the Internet. It comes with a complete solution manual and saves trees. The book has a 1000 pages, good graphics, zooms and has lots of features.
The first part is thermo and covers the topic in detail with lots of resources. Acids bases, equilibrium are covered well followed by chemical kinetics. One of the world leaders in kinetics was Kieth Laidler who wrote those chapters. Then there is quantum and spectroscopy, a really good chapter in stat. mech. followed by some special topics.
Teachers can use the multimedia in the classroom, and can easily copy and paste figures into class notes.
I do not know expensive hard copy text books are still around. You can get chapter 1 for free:
http://www.mchmultimedia.com/store/register.php?action=try&cat=64