First off, I know this is a used book trading site, so anyone commenting on that...Anyway, I received a "wish list" book (I was first on the list) and it was published a month ago, so it's newly out. You would expect it to be in fairly decent condition, right? Anyway, when I received the book, it looked like it had been through a dozen readers - the spine is completely broken, so much so that at the bottom and top you can see the "colors" worn off and all the lines where the spine had been forced. The book doesn't sit 'flat', it stays open - because the pages are coming loose from the binding. At any rate, I won't be able to repost the book (and it's got a lot of people on the WL) because of its bad condition.  (For the record, I didn't RWAP because it's readable, but not repostable).

Question: Why do people feel the need to break the spine? Why do they have to make sure the book lays flat while they read it? Some people actually keep forcing the book open - and this is the end result. Thoughts?

Cold weather may have exacerbated the spine condition. There’s another post mentioning waiting for books to ‘warm up’ before they are opened if they’ve been in cold conditions as glue may crack. And sometimes the glue is just inferior. That said, my bookmate book holder keeps books relatively flat/open, but I don’t think it has broken any spines.

I don't know if your book is YA or not, but YA books are the most cheaply made books ... reading a paperback YA it's HARD to not crack the spines in half.

My DH is hard on books, I have to keep reminding him that I need the books to stay in nice condition, and even then it's 50-50 as to whether or not it's clean enough to post when he's done.

Everyone has the right to read a book any way they want to... Force it open flat, splay it open upside down at night, dog ear it, use the dust cover flaps as a book mark (guilty).  I don't know their reasons, but they're theirs to have.  What they SHOULDN'T be doing is using them in a way that makes them unpostable and then expect to be able to post them.  If I had received with a book with a broken spine that I couldn't repost under the rules, I'd have RWAP'd it so fast it'd make your head spin, whether it was readable or not.  I think not doing so encourages people to post unpostable books "because they can get by with it."  You shouldn't have to take the hit for someone else's book abuse.

I think if a book has underlining or highlighting it will have heavy creases in the spine also as the book takes a lot of pressure on it as people hold it open to write in it.

I recently read a mass market pbk that had the printing very close to the binding. It made the book hard to read because I had a hard time opening the book far enough to see the printing that was close to the binding.

I've also noticed that moe and more paperbacks are being printed very close to the spine edge of the book, and they are hard to read without splaying open the book, which I try not to do. Pat

I received a mass market paperback today that was only released at the end of February that looked like it had been around for years with major spine creasing.  This has been happening a lot more lately.

Once as I prepared to mail a recently released book (had the label, tape, and envelope ready on my table) I bent the spine of the book as I picked it up! It slipped out of my hand as it was heavy. The book was in excellent condition except for the newly damaged spine. I sent the book out but emailed the receiver to let him know what happened. He was very gracious but  after seeing the book stated that he didn't think he could re-post the book. He promptly got his credit back! Stuff happens but disregarding the rules ruins it for all of us!

I've noticed with some new books in the past few years, it's almost impossible to NOT break the spine.  Mass market books are the worst.  I've purchased several NEW books in the bookstore, only to have the spine break or the pages simply fall out with very minor handling.  I literally bought a book at a retail bookstore, clerk put it in the bag, I set the bag in my back seat, took the bag out of the back seat and set on my table at home.  A few minutes later, took the book out and set it down on my desk only to have the entire mid section (about a third of the book) slide right out!  No rough handling, no banging around and the book hadn't been opened to be read yet!  I took it back and got a replacement and the clerk told me they'd had a large # of returns on books by that publisher lately.  The replacement book also fell apart while I was reading it.....so it's not always a bad book being posted.  Sometimes the spines break in transit because a book is badly made. Just saying, you can't always assume the spine was broken when sent!

Also, some times you will be the last reader of a used book, period. Used books don't last forever.  I am glad you got your WL book :)

Some people are very rough on books. When I see someone reading a paperback and they have bent the front half of the back as far around the back half as it will go, I cringe.

Books are not made in the quality they used to be. I opened a hardcover last night that was shipped to me new from Amazon and I could see and hear the spine cleaving in front of me. Nothing I could do short of not opening the book.

Before I joined PBS I always cracked the spine on MMPB as it was the only way I could comfortably read them with the amount of arthritis I have in my hands.  I also use to bend the front portion of the book around the back portion of the book as a way to make a smaller item to grasp.  I no longer do those things but I often am grateful to get an older MMPB that has more flexability in them than the new books.