How to open a book

Opening books is something that we have been doing since we were children and seems about as obvious as finding your nose.

However, lots of books, especially brick-thick paperbacks (I'm looking at you, J R R Tolkien) suffer cruelly at the hands of their careless readers.

You've seen victims of this bibliocrime - spines carelessly snapped and pages left clinging desperately to the bindings, or SELLOTAPED in place *crosses self*.  Others, whose backs are stronger, have their pages curled and twisted so that by the time you read the last pages in your massive book, it's like trying to read a beach ball.



This torture can be avoided by learning how to open a book properly - and not just the hefty J RR or G RR types either).  Here we see Nib + Ink, which I WILL one day actually get around to using.  Lovely book!

Anyhoo, I digress ...

Step 1:  Lie your book on a flat surface and grab all the pages in one hand, letting the back and front cover flop open.

Step 2:  Press the front and back covers firmly against the flat surface.

Step 3: Drop down the first 10 or so pages from the front of the book and the last 10 or so from the back of the book (keeping the rest of the pages still in your iron like grip).  Press those pages against the front and back covers respectively.

What in the hell! My hand looks like some kind of cloven hoof?! 

Step 4:  Repeat Step 3 until you have only a dozen or so pages in your hand.

Now, close the book.



What you have done is evenly spread the load of the pages across the spine in such a way that no one part of it was under undue pressure.

Happy reading!