I posted a number of books to my Bookshelf last night, some on Wish Lists and some not. One that I'd gotten from PBS originally (so it was on my Transaction List) was requested, then deleted, and I assumed the person decided they didn't want it.

This morning, I was offered the book! It obviously wasn't on my Wish List, since it was on my Transaction List as being received from PBS and was on my Bookshelf. Had I accepted the book, I would have printed out an address form being sent from me to me!

How could that happen?

You would have to ask PBS by sending in feedback, but the most likely explanation is that it actually was on your wish list. Any one of these could have happened:

- a glitch in the system when you first put the book on your WL so that it was listed twice and only your first wish was fulfilled, then when you reposted it you fulfilled the second wish

- you forgot that you got it and added it back to your WL at some point after receiving it (I'm sure many of us, including me, have done this)

- you had multiple versions on your WL and one of the alternates was not removed when you got the book. The book that was sent to you did not match the listing it was posted under, and then when you reposted it you used the correct ISBN that was still on your WL.

Thanks for the suggestions. I know it would be possible for it to remain on my Wish List after I receive a different version, as some times books that go on Hold don't ever leave, and others don't synch up and I have to delete them manually. 

Even if it was a different ISBN, with the same title, why would the system suggest I send a book to myself? Maybe I should try Wishing for a book where my copy is the only one in the system and see if it does that regularly or if this was unique.

Craig, You can't wish for a book where your copy is the only one in the system - if your book is in the system you wouldn't be able to wishlist it - you would be ordering it from FIFO.

What you might be thinking is if there is a book wher you are the only wisher, if you posted that book would it be offered to yourself?

Yes, I see; I'd have to wish for a book that I owned that no one else was wishing for, then post that book and see if it offered it to me.

What you might be thinking is if there is a book wher you are the only wisher, if you posted that book would it be offered to yourself?

That's apparently what happened, although I'm really skeptical that it was actually on my Wish List. If it was somehow, then the answer is Yes, the system will offer you your own book if you have it on your Wish List and then post it.

The even odder part is that it waited until 2:30 in the morning to offer it to me rather than doing it right away. That makes me think it was a glitch of some kind.

I asked Feedback, so I'll see what they say.

Craig, click the pm button to see who is offering you the book. 

It's me; my copy is the only one in the system. The best explanation is that my Wish wasnt deleted when I first got it months ago, so when I reposted it, my Wish popped up again. I don't know if that's really what happened, but our Wish Lists are so large now it's possible that a book wasn't deleted after I marked it received. I know other versions don't always get deleted, so I sometimes go through looking for those.  

I ordered my own book once, by accident.  I don't remember the circumstances of exactly what I was doing but I recall that I clicked on 'order this book' and when it came through, I noticed that the sender was me.  As I thought it through, it occured to me that the programming for the software that runs this site is not likely to be sophisticated enough to eliminate the possiblilty that one could order a book from oneself or have a WL book posted to oneself.  That would require the programmers to write a more complicated program that just would not be necessary on a day-to-day basis for this site.  The chances of posting a book into the system that is on one's WL or ordering the exact same book that is posted to one's shelf is not likely a common occurrence - it should, in fact, be a very rare occurrence - therefore, it would not be necessary to complicate the programming to the point that it compares sender/recipient information before allowing the request to go through. 

I think that somehow the book you posted was on your WL or was somehow put back on your WL and you got the book posted to you b/c it was on your WL.  Is there any chance that when you received it you marked it  RWAP?  That would have restored you to the WL for that ISBN.  I'm not suggesting you are reposting an unpostable book - maybe the RWAP was something to do with an RC you have (or had for that book) that would have violated your particular RC but not the site posting rules in general?  (Which would allow you to post it now to the general membership.)

It was definitely a postable book, it looks great. The most plausible explanation is that it somehow got back onto my WL. That doesnt explain why it took five hours from when I posted it until I was notified that I'd requested my own book. All the other On Holds/Requests came through immediately. That one went onto my Bookshelf for a few hours. Some things are unknowable.

I could see that people get books from other sources that are on their WLs, forget they're there and then later post the book. I hadn't considered that it might be hard to program out that conflict, but I suppose getting an exception (This Book is On Your WL) would accomplish only the same thing as getting your own Wish and declining the book.