Learn English – Word for describing a book with its sheets separated

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What is a suitable word for describing a book that its sheets are separated from each other and its binding?

The intended sentence is something like : He was holding a portion of my XXXXX copy of Jackson's textbook.

Edit after Chris's answer:

I want to imply that the book is unbinded as a result of being used and studied too much.

(You are welcome to modify other parts of the above sentence too, to make it more clear.)

Best Answer

Bibliophiles have their own jargon for the various ways a book can be damaged— foxed, warped, a whole slew of c- words from to chipped to cockled to crimped; see ILAB glossary for a few. The technical term for a book that has lost its binding is disbound, which Merriam-Webster defines as simply

no longer having a binding (a disbound pamphlet)

But there isn't, so far as I know, an English idiom that refers to a book becoming disbound due to overuse. For whatever reason, the English noticed wear and tear on the pages of the book rather than its spine, and so a book that is worn out from overuse is very often described as tattered and/or dog-eared, and perhaps frayed (especially of cloth bookcovers). Per MW again:

tattered - 2: torn into shreds: ragged (a tattered flag)
3a: broken down : dilapidated (decaying houses along tattered paved streets — P. B. Martin)
b: being in a shattered condition (led their tattered party to victory)

dog-eared - 1: having dog-ears (a dog–eared book)
2: shabby, timeworn (a dog–eared resort dog–eared myths)

(a dog-ear is a folded-down corner of a page, used to hold a place) Photo of a dog-eared book from Wikimedia Commons, GFDL by Derbeth

3 fray (intransitive) - 1: to wear out or into shreds
2: to show signs of strain

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