TIL the used bookstore in Portland has a back room where the spines are graded like produce
I stopped by Powell's last Saturday and found a little back section where a guy was sorting hardcovers into "tight," "shaky," and "just here for the text" piles, and he let me watch him fix a cracked hinge with wheat paste right there on the spot. He told me he reglues about 40 books a week and that most people never notice the repair unless you open the cover past 90 degrees. Is wheat paste really the standard for hinge repair, or do you all use something else for older cloth bindings?