[General] as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding

[albert210]

Hello
Should I consider the underlined part as a whole or Should I split the sentence at "and the cover and binding..."?

The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding—which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together—blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work.

"The Penultimate Peril," by Daniel Handler

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello.
Should I consider the underlined part as a whole or should I split the sentence at "and the cover and binding..."?

The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding - which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together - blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work.

"The Penultimate Peril," by Daniel Handler

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "split the sentence at and the cover and the binding" because the sentence has already been split there by use of a dash. It's a long sentence anyway so adding that unnecessary definition of "binding" just makes it longer.

The words you underlined originally don't go together. The section between the dashes is a separate entity. I have underlined and greyed out the relevant part in the quote above.

The pertinent information is "The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work."

To assist with reading it, I would have put a comma after "ashes".