Brian Gaff wrote

No way back in the 80s, when CP/M was even running on the Spectrum,
Locomotive made a manual for the system and Locomotive Basic.
Within about 3 weeks the pages started to fall out. its some kind of
almost stringy glue. I'm not convinced that paperback glue was ever any
good.

The DEC paperbacks from the 60s are still fine today.

Same with pre war Penguins too.

I used to have them when I was at school to read when the sports were
being done, and even then pages fell out,

Only if you break the spine.

heck some hardbacks did too if they were of the rough paper kind.

Yeah, some were perfect bound instead of stitched.

It could be that it relies on the glue getting into the paper and some
paper is better than other paper.

Not with proper hard backs, they were stitched, not glued.

I remember though that some kind of glue could be applied, but you had to
destroy the spine which then made it a little difficult to tell what the
book was.

Trivial now to copy the cover and spine before you
destroy it and print another onto heavier card etc.

"Dan S. MacAbre" wrote in message
news
Here's a no doubt silly question :-) I find that I can hardly open some
of my older books now without the spine cracking, and a few pages falling
out. I was just wondering if there's anything that can be done to
prevent this, without boxing them up in the loft, or something. I was
considering rubbing some kind of oil on the back, in the hope that it
might soak in over time, and make the glue a bit more flexible again. But
if course, it also might just make it all gooey, and the pages might be
even more likely to fall out.

Has anyone else found anything that makes their paperbacks last a bit
longer?