I guess you could call it a gouge. There is a rip on the front page that goes through each page up to (but not including) the first page of story. The first one is a little ugly, but it gets progressively smaller for each page. The paper is ripped but not torn off, and it's in blank space on both sides of each page it's on.

In the posting guidelines I see something about torn pages, but to me torn says that paper is actually missing. Am I deluding myself?

For me, I would say it is not postable. My interpretation of no torn pages is no tears/holes in the pages whether or not there are parts missing at all. I would probably classify a book with a gouge in it as not in good condtion anyway.