How To Break A Book's Spine Without Damaging It

Whether you care or not about the spine of your book, it is widely known in the book community that breaking a book’s spine is taboo.

I’ve seen videos where people demolish a book’s spine by nearly ripping a poor paperback in half. I have seen pages fall to the floor in some of these videos. Yes, fall to the floor. The binding has come undone, and pages have fallen away.

Now, if you ask anyone close to me, you’ll know I take great care of my books. To the point, I never lend them out unless I know you’ll be careful with them, and even then, it might just be a hardback I give you if I have it. They are a bit sturdier than paperbacks. Since I take great care of my books, knowing how to break in their spines so that they open nicely properly but leave little to no marks down them is essential.

Luckily for everyone, breaking in book spines is the same for hardbacks and paperbacks. The process can take two to five minutes, depending on the book size. Your speed, care and size of the book all play factors in the time.

How to Break a Books Spine

1 – Take your book and place it spine down on a flat surface.

2 – Take the back and front cover, and lay them flat against the surface while keeping the pages vertical.

3 – Take One to Two pages from each side (front and back), and pull them down so they lie flat on the front and back covers.

4 – Run your finger along the inside of the book where the pages meet the page you’ve just pulled down.

5 – Repeat Step Three and Step Four until all pages lie flat.

6 – (OPTIONAL) Close the book, place it flat on either its front or back, and run your finger along the edge of the spine.

And that’s it. Step Six is optional, but I always do it to ensure it sits closed nicely.

I’ve found that this process is best done before you start reading. If you do this when you get your book and then add it to your TBR (To Be Read) pile, then the book may need this process repeated. Sometimes it seems to stiffen up almost.

I’ve listed a walk-through video from my YouTube channel for you to follow.