Comradeship // Freechat

I think you can do an OK job repairing it with just PVA glue. Brush it into the spine. Use a thin layer, not too much. You will want to place parchment paper between the pages at the site of the split. Then close the book, hold it for a couple minutes, press in a bit on the spine to help the cover on the spine attach to the drying glue. Place a couple rubber bands around it to hold it in place (optional), place it under a stack of other books for weight, leave it alone for a day while the glue cures.

I recommend looking up "paperback cracked spine repair" on YouTube to see examples of professionals doing the repair so you can learn. PVA glue is acid-free and dries flexible, which are the two most important qualities in book-repair glue.

I know. Busy now. Ping me later to remind me pls.

If you can afford it, get a professional. If you can't, maybe you can trade some labor for the service, or offer labor in exchange for learning? I don't know if either of these are possibilities, I don't know your circumstances or the culture, apologize if it's unhelpful.

Public libraries rebind books, maybe you could ask your local one.

You'll have to make a new cover. You will need some book binding glue so you can put it in a new cover. If you can find a good printing service, you could buy some cover stock to print it on and have a new cover ready to go. As for the process of doing so, you'll have to learn that on your own.

I am trying to learn how to bookbind

But repairing old or decaying or worn books is probably a bit more worthwhile.

The only thing I can think of is to maybe make another cover and preserve the pages?

There's special book repairing tape that you should use for this.