Cracking spines, breaking glue

[jabba359]

The other day I opened up my trade paperback copy of The Shrouded Moon. But as I opened it up, I was met with the crackling sound of the spine breaking. The pages are still glued together and attached to the cover, but the glue on the second half of the book had completely separated from the spine. Now, this isn't the first TPB this has happened to, but it got me thinking: has anyone else experienced this with their books and is there a way to combat this happening?

[BuckRogers]

Oh yes. Unfortunately too many times.

This has happened to many of my Star Wars omnibuses that I own.

Of course having five kids aged 7-14 that all love Star Wars as much as me doesn't help as they have been read 100's of times, but it still stinks when it happens.

And no, I can only keep you company with my own broken spines, not fix them. I have yet to find a way to fix them that works.

[Lobster Johnson]

Yep, it's happened to me (also with Star Wars books). I don't know how to fix it, though.

[go]

Dear Reader,
For repair, Elmer's Glue-All will work.
Use sparingly and make sure you figure a way to keep the book's shape together while it dries.
The problem most likely was in the chemistry of the original batch of glue.
Best wishes to all.
go

[Usagi-chan]

This has happened to me with books. Its frustrating!

[jabba359]

One of the many reasons I tend to buy hardcover books (in general) is that they are more likely to use a sewn binding, which doesn't suffer from cracking and brittleness the way glue does.