Had to pick between glue and thread for my last rebind

I was working on an old paperback that fell apart. The spine was completely shot. Decided to try glue only instead of sewing signatures. It held together fine for two weeks then cracked right down the middle on page 87. Back to thread for me. Anybody else find glue-only never lasts for paperbacks?

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jordan1843mo ago

Huh, that sucks. What kind of glue did you use? I've seen people swear by PVA but it always gave me trouble on paperbacks.

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the_reese3mo ago

You gotta use both, glue alone on paperbacks is basically asking for trouble. The issue is paperbacks have that tight glued spine from the factory so when you try to reglue just the spine the pages don't have any support from thread or stitching to hold them together. What works for me is using PVA but only after I add some saw cuts down the spine and then sew through those with thread first, then glue over it. The glue is just there to keep everything flat and stable while the thread does the actual heavy lifting. If you're dead set on glue only you need something flexible like EVA not PVA, but even then expect it to fail again after a few months.

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