Terry Pratchett Carpet People page cut oddities

Right, I tried this over on alt.fan.pratchett and got nowhere. Since you
people are considerably more knowledgeable about books generally, and
since my collector's instinct has only been activated in the last few
months, perhaps someone here can help?

I recently acquired a copy of the original edition of Terry Pratchett's
/The Carpet People/, and while examining it for condition came across
something odd about some of the pages. Does anyone else have a copy
where the first page of the second signature (pp 33, 34, 63,64) is a
little shorter than the rest? Or some very neat diagonally-cut corners,
at exactly the same angle but with different sized chunks missing, at
the bottom edge of a few apparently-random
pages? [Is this a common production flaw I've not come across before? Or
has some earlier reader decided to cut off bits of their pages rather
than create a dog-ear?]

Enquiring minds (OK, just mine) want to know.

TIA

Mike M


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wrote:

Is this a common production flaw I've not come across before?

Yes, basically. The missing triangles are probably where there was a folded bit
at the bottom, removed in a triangle by the previous owner. When I get these, I
try to trim them square to fit with the other pages, but it is an annoying
little job and much simpler (if the book is one I do not care that much about)
to just take the excess out at the original diagonal fold.

--Helen