I recently received a large hardback book I ordered online, only to find it was damaged during the mail process. There's a tear in the cover just on the back edge of the spine. It's not a huge tear, but it's unsightly and definitely has the potential to worsen and further damage the book.
I'm wondering if anybody would have suggestions on how to best repair this damage and/or protect the rest of the book. I'd just tape it up, but I know that adhesives can have adverse affects on paper via aging, acids, etc.
A search online for a solution to this problem only seems to throw up tutorials on completely replacing a book spine, reattaching a separated cover, etc - but I imagine there has to be some knowledge out there about a common, relatively small problem like this. Any thoughts or advice? Is there somewhere else I should be asking? Complete book repair newbie here.