Anatomy of a Book

Books have a lot more than a cover and pages.  Some of these items I was familiar with, but others I had never heard of before.

The outside of a book includes the casewrap. It is the cover on a hardcover book. It is the cover right under a book jacket.  More and more authors, illustrators, and publishers are making their casewraps elaborate. They are like movie posters. They need to look appealing to attract readers.

The inside of the book structure includes endpaper, headband, and spine. These keep the book from falling apart.

The book pages themselves include a gutter and make up the block.

As a librarian, I would want to pick a book with a tough binding and a spine that won't break. Book will be read and handled over and over again. They need to be sturdy.  Books must also be appealing to students so they will want to read them.

Books can come with formats which I like to  all favors or swag. Before they are printed, there are proofs. These are just like photo proofs. They are used to check for colors and consistency among pages.

Pages can be saddle stitched or gathered by folding.