Last library sale I had to choose between two old sci-fi novels...

Found a beat up copy of 'The Forever War' and a pristine 'Gateway' at the Friends of the Library sale in Portland for 50 cents each. I only had a dollar in my wallet, so I grabbed the Haldeman instead of the Pohl. Got home and found out it had pages 45-60 ripped out... whole chunk of the boot camp scene missing. Has anyone else got burned by a thrift store book that looked fine on the outside?

2 comments

2 Comments

eva2437d agoMost Upvoted

Are you really saying that missing pages made it a bad buy? You got a classic novel for fifty cents. That's a steal even if half the book was missing. I've bought books with torn covers and coffee stains all through them, and I still felt lucky because the story was still there. The missing pages just give you an excuse to imagine what happened in that boot camp scene yourself. Plus now you have a reason to track down a complete copy and compare the versions.

cora_martinez7d ago

Huh, did you try just filling in the missing parts yourself? I had a beat up copy of something once where pages were ripped out, and honestly it was kind of fun making up what I thought happened haha. Ended up tracking down a full version later and it was hilarious seeing how off I was lol.