Reminder to new users here: Most hardback books these days have glued, rather than sewn, bindings. This means they’re basically paperbacks with hard covers. And because the covers are bigger than the book blocks, they slowly sag and pull their own spines out. Buy trade paperbacks instead.

A publisher who will remain nameless here is the bane of my librarian existence. I might as well just cut the binding and redo it every time because once it’s borrowed I’m going to have to do it anyway.

Man thatjust hurts my feelings to know In 100 yrs our books are gone

i am 58 and doing the same

This is good advice. It’s still possible to get well-made books. But they’re increasingly rare. Art books are mostly the exception but I guess that’s because they’re so damned expensive.

Sounds like my method is simply stacking hardbacks on their faces in little piles is actually an archival technique.

Thank you for validating my strong preference for trade paperbacks!

Is the paper stock the same?

damn. this is upsetting

This was sincerely helpful

work at a library. can confirm new hardcovers fall apart at appalling rate. at the risk of sounding old, they don't make books like they used to.