I have a heavily wishlist book, THE FIERY CROSS, by Diana Gabaldon, a paperback, which I received from another PBS member in 2006.  I never got around to reading the book and decided to post it.

Upon closer inspection of the book, I find a printing defect on one page where the paper was folded down for about 2 inches and then the text is printed on top of that fold but is not clear enough that it can be read.  This is only about 2 inches at the top of one page and on the backside of that page, only about 1 inch of text is affected.  Now this is a 1443 page book, quite large, so I can't imagine that in the whole scheme of things that two inches of missing text would matter greatly.

So my question is:  can I post this book? 

Thanks for your help.

Jan

I think this one is a judgement call and I expect you will get many of opinions yea and nay.   Richard of PBS says "use your best judgement" at times.   While I SELDOM Pm someone to whom I've posted a book, I'd post it and PM to make sure it's ok.

IF someone can point to the helps to show it's NOT postable, then of course I would never recommend it be posted.

I would suggest one of two options:

1) Contact the publisher (or your favorite book store) and I bet they'll give you a new copy

2) Post it in the Book Bazaar  (one of the discussion forums under the Community menu) and describe the situation.  You can ask for a credit for damaged wish list books.

I'm thinking that if someone know about the problem ahead of time, he'll be delighted to get your copy, whereas someone expecting a "normal" book might be annoyed at getting this book, even though it's a publisher's error.

Best option, though, IMHO, is  to contact the publisher.  This won't be the first time for them.

ETA: posted at same time as Cosette -- I agree that there's nothing specific in the help docs that prohibits this.

Edited again -- Oops -- just reread the OP -- if there are actually words missing (a couple of inches) that is unpostable, in the spirit of things.  The equivalent of a missing (or partially missing) text page.

I agree with Cozette, I would probably PM about that one (although, in general, I also do not PM about books).

For myself, I would think it OK, and quite honestly, I think most people woul dnot mind, but I am sure there are others out there who might.

I wouldn't want to chance it, and would consider it unpostable. Library and Bookcrossing books, for example, can have various markings inside the book, but the site says that the markings can not obscure text.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/search.php?terms=covered+text

If it's heavily WL'd, if you post it to the Bazaar, describing the defect, It might go pretty quickly. 

If I knew about it, I'd PM the person. Although, it's something that's easily overlooked if the book wasn't read.

As Patty mentioned, if the book is still in new condition, you could probably just bring it into a bookstore and trade it for another. I've done it a couple of times and they were glad to help.

I agree with Patty, I would contact the publisher.  Or offer it in the Book Bazaar as a non-postable and ask for a credit.   If it is a WL, it will be snapped up.

I wouldn't post it directly to FIFO.

In the spirit of no loose or missing text pages and remainder marks not obscuring text, then a book with missing or unreadable text is in my opinion unpostable. If I were in the recipient's shoes, I would appreciate a PM about it. I would reply declining the book.

But the Book Bazaar and/or exchanging it with the bookstore/publisher are great alternatives.

Thanks for considering mailing out such a voluminous (and likely heavy) book.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions.  As it happened, a reader of this forum had it on her wishlist and offered me a credit for this book.  That is much appreciated since the PBS postage for mailing this heavy book was $3.39.

Thanks to all!

Jan

Great solution! Love all the communication and problem solving that goes on in this forum.  People are so helpful.

If you haven't sent it yet, a nice gesture would be to go to your local library pull the copy of the book, go to the copy machine and photocopy the page that has words missing. Cut it down to size so that it fits in the book and mail it along with the book. That or the requestor could do the same. Or if you already mailed, and still want to do something, you could photocopy the text at the library, go home, and scan it into your computer, save the file, then send the requestor the file and she can print it to read when she gets to that page. Just thinking out loud with my fingers here.