2 year-old tearing books, what to do?

My toddler loves books and we have gotten into the habit of picking a book to read in bed at bedtime. He has many interactive, lift-the-flap books but sometimes it looks like he can’t stop himself from tearing the flaps. He doesn’t stop when I tell him to stop so when he does that I just close the book and take it away saying “it is not okay to tear books. We need to be gentle with books. If we tear them we can’t read them” despite him crying. I don’t want to cause him to despise books but I also want him to learn this is not okay. How do I need to approach this?