With thin paperbacks the spines often remain in good condition but with any thicker paperbacks the spines always get creased no matter how I pre-open the pages. If you want to read the books comfortably, I'd recommend that you either don't focus on the creases or buy hardcover books. With collectors editions you could always get the book and read an ebook version of the same text.

You can also download movies and music for free but somehow people are willing to pay for services like Spotify and Netflix. Downloading illegally distributed books is illegal in most regions and it doesn't support the authors. Personally I don't find reading ebooks difficult. Nothing is easier than buying one on the Kindle store and reading it without having to lug books around.

Did I download illegally distributed copies of media when I was a student? Sure. Am I doing it now that I'm an employed adult? Never.

Do you have a visual imagination? If you do, then it may be worth it to try to create the scenes as well as possible during reading the book. You may be able to create scenes that no manga can.

I don't personally need a translation but one version that I know of that many have enjoyed to read or look at is the "An Illustrated Kalevala" version by Kirsti Mäkinen.

If you found The tale of Kullervo interesting, you might want to get to know Kalevala.

The connection between Tolkien's book and Kalevala: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Kullervo

Kalevala: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala