I was in complete denial but THIS WORKS WONDERS! I did the thing and was turning the book expecting a huge crease but IT WORKED no creases and still wide open!!!
You probably did just fine and here’s the reason why I say this. First of all, this was a good “how-to” video and I learned something I didn’t know. However, I think this guy accidentally used the words “cracks” and “creases” interchangeably. If you go to 2:52-2:55, put your phone in full screen mode and then physically rotate your phone sideways (if you’re using a phone), when he aims his book’s spine toward the right and left sides of the viewer, looking closely at the spine’s top side, the lighting in his video shows that there 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙨 on the tops and bottoms of the letters “a con”. You’ll have to look closely and maybe even pause the video but they’re there. And once you see them, you can’t not see them. Also, 2:52-2:55, he specifically said, “absolutely 𝘯𝘰 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙨", 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 "𝙣𝙤 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨" 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙨. Now he did use both words in this video, but that’s why I think he accidentally used them interchangeably. Also, you actually want a few creases in the spine because without them, the book would struggle to open toward the binding. The creasing is what enables the flexibility and longevity that this whole conditioning exercise works toward. And even minimal creasing is almost impossible to avoid unless you never open the book more than halfway. And if that’s what you do, overtime your paperback’s cover page will develop that rolled back look and that’s just as tacky-looking as a cracked/torn/ripped spine. So essentially, it’s small creases that you 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵, it’s cracks that you 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵. And if anyone says they’re the same thing, no they’re not. In a book’s case, a crack would be any breakage in a surface without the entire surface separating. A crease is an indentation that is deliberately placed in said location.
THANK YOU. I have the whole Harry Potter series with plaid spines and I’ve been trying to collect those ones for months and I finally have all of them matching. I didn’t want to crack the spines, and Harry Potter books tend to be anywhere from only 300 pages a book up to almost 900 pages, so it can be difficult reading them and spreading the book open without it cracking, but this trick worked!
I tried to read my books as carefully as it was possible as well. But since I know about this, my shelf and books are literally celebrating. (Great video btw, the most detailed I've seen so far and the upside down spoiler free strategy is incredible I'll use it, thank you 😁)
After you have trained the spine, consider creasing the front and back cover pages. Some paperbacks have a pre-crease line for this. This makes the book work more like a hardback and takes all the stress off the glue. Make the crease about 7mm from the back (may be different depending on book size). Another way is to crease the cover right where it hinges on to the spine. NB! Always train the spine before creasing the covers, since the stress taken off the spine by creasing can be so great that it makes it difficult to train the spine. If you have difficulty bringing yourself to do this, try it with a book that isn't very important to you first. Once you notice the difference I guarantee you keep doing it!
@nankc1 you know how hardcover books have a little dent between the spine and covers that makes it easier to open? I think they mean just like that you kind of fold your cover a couple mm from the edge. I've never done it before though so idk how reliable this method is.
Yes - look for that vertical pre-dented/creased line on the front and rear covers of many soft-cover books... And if there isn't one there as printed, I always take a metal ruler and set it firmly pressed down at that perfect distance from the spine (which varies depending on how far the block text of the main pages of the book is indented, right? If the text is printed very close to the inner edge of the page, you'll want to make that front/back cover fold as close as you can get it, so from 3 or 4 mm up to 12 or so - again depending on the "build" of the particular book 😉) and use the ruler as a guide to run let's say the back/rounded edge of a butterknife works well, make your own guide/indentation. And if you do want to use this folding technique, definitely do that step first of making your own indentation if there isn't a line already, as otherwise you're guaranteed to get messy folds on those covers!
It's the spine curling/arching/warping that freaks me out the most. I'm careful enough to not worry about full-on cracks. I'm reading 1100 page monstrosity Hawaii by Michener right now and the increasingly concave spine I feel on my fingers legit stresses me out. Not sure whether this hack would mitigate curling as well...
I have learned about this recently. I am absolutely going to try this "spine training" thing, since I have been trying to read my paperback books for years as carefully as possible, yet I have always ended up cracking the spines of my older books. This may just be a life changer.
How long does it take you for a book about as lengthy as the one in the video? I'm not sure if I'm doing it way too quickly because most of the actual training he does is sped up (understandably so)
I have the 13th edition of Machinery's Handbook, copyright 1946, with the original dust jacket. The front dust jacket inner flap has as a heading on top, HOW TO OPEN A NEW BOOK, it provides five, inch and a half, square size picture illustrations showing those very steps that you did, and under each picture is a corresponding word description of what's taking place. It also explains you want to repeat the process three times. They're using a hard copy as the example, which makes sense, seeing most books of that era were hard copy. So yes, this knowledge has been around for a while, at least in the period of the 1940's, and even earlier, I suspect? I've known about this method when I purchased the handbook 10 years ago and have always incorporated it on new books, but since this was knowledge from the 1940's era (80 years), I always took it for granted that this method was common knowledge to the general public? Who knew?
Thank you so much ....it truly is life saving...I don't have to go through the pain I used to go through when the book's spine cracked.... saved me big time 🙂 Thanks a lot again
Thank you so much! I’m gonna try this one for curtain. I’ve bought recently a 4 book series in paper back, the 3rd has more than 500+ pages and I’m having a hard time reading it without cracking the spine! This is gonna hopefully help me a lot!
I have a "How to open a new book" illustration from the 1940's, and it shows pictures of it being done on a hard copy book, which makes sense, because most books of that era were hard copies.
awesome! Thank you. I had never heard of this. for years i thought the less stress to the spine would help preserve my books didn't know I was actually doing the opposite. will be conditioning my books from now on.
Just a bit of extra info. If the book binding process was cheaped out on then this technique won't work. In the last few years overall quality of books being released have degraded significantly. Many corners are being cut by publishers. Low quality paper and ink are used and they skimp on the glue so it dries out and causes thick books to crack the moment you even try to open them.
I bought a book a few days ago, and it was from the first edition of 2009. The glue disappeared a bit on the edges but it was ok. But the thing was hard. So I did this thing and it worked. But i did got some "wrinkles" on the spine, and maybe a pushed a bit too hard on the low part. But it was a sacrifice i was willing to accept (after crying myself to sleep for it) if it means I don't have to use Hulk like strength to read it
thanks a lot!! i had this math book which kept closing and in order to keep it open I thought I had to break the spine which makes it weak n all but after this video my problem is totally solved and now it remains open and I didn't have to break the spine!
I wish there was a way to uncrack the spine on a paperback. There probably is. I just want to get rid of the creases on the boom spine so it looks nice and clean
I have just started to get into reading again and have bought my own books instead of going to a library. I thought the spinal cracks were normal, luckily I have only read through two books before going to the internet to see if it was normal or not, does anyone have any tips on how to relieve the cracks in my books? No pages have fallen out, there is just a noticeable crease down the spine.
There’s nothing wrong with a cracked spine. It shows character! But I don’t know that you can reverse the cracks. At least you found this trick early in your reading journey!
You cant do much, however just a little thing I do with my old ones is get a marker and color in the whitening, usually the inside of the cracks are white. A lot of those book covers were black so I got a black marker and put colored them, it sounds a little tacky but trust me just that little bit of color does wonders for the way it looks, especially from afar sitting in your bookshelf.
Wait... you can't read upside down?! :) Anyway, nice trick, thanks for sharing it, I'll try it next time. But I can't imagine librarians really do it with hundreds or thousands of books, I would go crazy...
I have 1 question. Why some books open all the way to the sides, even without this technique. You can just put them flat on the bed, no need of holding it with your hands.. Like our school textbooks I remember, then theres a 1000 page book i have hitchikers guide to the galaxy. While so many paperbacks like the six of crows, we need to hold them and read?
Just got the Harry Potter series (the originally published books) and have to try this I’m so scared tho I’m seeing a lot of people say it cracked them anyway
It's funny when my wife was reading I seen the spines of her books, she cracked them all, I said holy cow have you ever heard of condition the spine, obviously not haha, her and I definitely grew up differently haha
im getting my NFPA 70 book on tuesday 4/20/21 and i really want it to last me longer than my last book which i unknowingly cracked the spine on day 1 and my index pages were falling out a year later
@@danielgoldman8017 oh yes it made a huge difference thank you! I never knew I even had to do that. That would have been great to know in grammar school
I wouldn't have looked this up if my colleague hadn't destroyed my book by cracking the spine. One minute I look away from my book and the next it's in someone else's hand with a chunk of pages dangling off of one end of the spine. 😔
The first video recommendation on book spine breaking explained the same in 1:45 minutes. That has way more views than this one cause its lengthy.... Unnecessarily and with redundant info.
This is absolutely not worth the time and effort, and if not done carefully will cause the exact problem you want to avoid (try stepping through an 800+ page book, twice). Just read the book! Be a bit gentle with the page opening, especially earlier on. The act of reading will automatically wear in the spine. People are way too obsessive about this hobby. Of course if you have unopened books on your shelf for long enough for the glue to go brittle (10+ years) before you read them, cracking the spine is not your main problem ;)
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You know what i am horrifies causee all my HARRY POTTER books have a cracked edge...only if I knew about this a bit early then I would not have to regret now..🥲
