Jan
28th
2023
Cracking it open · 11:44pm Jan 28th, 2023
The term "cracking it open", for a book or an eye or whatever, is not, traditionally, standard British English usage. It's crept in in very recent years for the usual "American English gets everywhere" reasons, but it still feels a bit foreign. Maybe this is why I find it quite intrusive when a fic uses the term every bloody time Twilight opens a book. Just sayin'. 
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Loganberry · 76 views
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I like it when unfamiliar idioms crop up in what I'm reading. ^_^ I can usually get the gist of the meaning from the context. For instance, I prefer to read the unadulterated version of Huckleberry Finn and Harry Potter.
5711353
Oh, that's fine of course. But a while ago, I read a fic where virtually every time somepony opened a book, the author had used "Rarity cracked open the book" or whatever, and it wasn't at all the smooth, barely noticeable term for me that it probably was for American readers. If the text had just said "Rarity opened the book" it would have been.
5711359
That sounds like an overuse of the idiom. I think cracking open a book should be a special event, like when starting some urgent research or any other situation that implies a deadline. If the books are several, then it would be "hitting the books". If you're afraid of what might be in the book (or of someone seeing you looking in the book) then it would be "opening the book a crack."