Books, Well-Bound and Badly-Bound
As you can see, this book is a well-bound book: it lies flat when open. It can do that because its back is flexible and is not glued to its spine. (The back is where the pages are fastened together; the spine is part of the cover.) The close-up shows how the back bends upward and away from the spine when the book is opened.
Unlike the book shown here, many of the books in my collection are badly bound. What's more, they're badly bound in several different ways.
The two most common ways of assembling the pages of a book are: sewn or glued
In hard-cover books with the pages glued instead of sewn, the glue dries out and cracks, and pages come loose. Here's what I did when that happened to one of my favorite books. A Re-Bound Book
Many hard-cover books have glue between the back and the spine. That stiffens the back such that the pages won't lie flat. A Badly-Bound Hard-Cover Book
Most paperback books won't lie flat when open. Sometimes when you flex their backs, you break them. Badly-Bound Paperback Books
Occasionally you find a paperback book that demonstrates the possibility of getting it right. A Well-Bound Paperback Book
copyright © 2008 Allen Watson III