Il'f and Petrov -- Signatures

[Andrew John Conovaloff]

Q ... it LACKS pages  529-564 (i.e., 36 consecutive
pages)...

A1  ...  The machine that stacks up the signatures
(gatherings) simply fails to get a copy of one individual
 signature.  It's random.

A2 Correct. Books are printed 32, 16, 8 or 4 pages at a
time, 2-sided on "signatures". Often a bood will have a
few blank pages at the end becsause all the signatures
were not filled with text. In your case, 16 pages were
printed on each side such that when folded 32 pages are in
sequence. Signatures have fold and cut marks. Depending on
the printer they are hand or machine collated. I self
printed a book years ago in which one signture was
inserted upside down. The workers should have noticed that
the book was missing 32 pages by it thickness variance.

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