Rebinding a novel before or after reading?

Hello!!

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Recently, I've ordered a novel online from an indie author and once it came in the mail it was rather strange.

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The grain direction seems to be perpendicular to the spine so the text block was stiff as a board and the novel seemed to have used white coated paper for the pages itself rather than the usual uncoated cream paper found in novels.

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The main point is that even if I set the book on its spine, the text block doesn't really fan out its pages at all. So I wanted to rebind it into a more flexible double fan binding at the very least.

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The thing is, I'm not really sure if I should do it before or after reading it since the double fan binding would surely make it easier to read but if something goes wrong then that's one novel ruined.

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Maybe I should invest in reversible bookbinding glue? I don't know. I would like some second opinions-