I used to have these as a kid(I'm almost 42) and I was looking through a rack of these at walmart and the grocery story the other day since my friend has a baby and an almost 6 yr old niece living with them..well, they felt so stiff. I opened the covers and all the pages seemed to flop together and the book didn't want to stay opened. I don't remember them being like this when I was a kid :-(  it's just 'uncomfortable' and makes me not want to read them. do they loosen up over a few readings? now I see why they're selling so many of those 'stapled' paperbacks..I much prefer holding those and reading them to dealing with these golden books.(and yes I stood in borders reading at least 30 of them trying to pick the perfect ones for the older kid and went with board books for the baby - even those were easier to handle than the golden books)

All the ones I have, both old & new, have trouble staying open. I think it is just the way they are constructed. There are staples under that gold tape.  I just crease them open. The paper seems thinner now.

I have about 50 Little Golden books, some old & some new.  I also grew up on them.  The newer ones do become easier to flip through as you go through them a few times.  It seems like many books are stiff at first.  Since the Golden Books have especially thin pages I guess they add something extra to them (maybe more starch?) to keep them staying new looking longer.  They can be "broken-in" over time though.