Verb
crack a book (third-person singular simple present cracks a book, present participle cracking a book, simple past and past participle cracked a book)
(informal) To open up one's books, especially in order to study.
You had better crack the books if you want to have any chance of graduating this year.
In order to read one must sit down, usually indoors. I am restless and would rather sail a boat than crack a book. I've never had a very lively literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not really a literary fellow at all. Except that I write for a living. E. B. White