Book in Useful Parts

Book has its structural parts that form as a body of a printed book. Readers had better know those parts for their convenience. Book lovers are genuinely interested in these parts.

Front cover: hardbound or softcover (paperback)_To put something over or upon, as to conceal.

Spine: binding that joins the front and back covers where the pages hinge, on which the call number is labelled and also the back part of the book that faces outward while shelving it right.

Endpapers: the leaves of paper before the title page and after the text. One part is fastened with the inside covers. They occur front or back in position. They also hold the text together and sometimes have with relevant information such as map.

Flyleaf: the blank leaf, one or more following the front endpaper and preceding the back endpaper.

Frontispiece: an elaborate illustration facing the title page of a book. The use is now obsolete.

Title page: The page at the beging of a book, usually containing the title, the author and the publisher of the book. It is no longer similar to frontispiece in modern usage. It may have a shorter title than the cover as well as it may shows condensed content of the whole text. However, no title occurs in incunabula (first printed book).

Copyright page: typically verso of title page where the copyright date is shown giving the cataloguing data such as copyright date, edition, ISBN, and brief history of the book.

Table of contents: a list of the contents of a book, arranged by chapter, section, subsection.

Dedication: it is the place where the author dedicates the book to somone.

Acknowledgments: a page where the author have the opportunity to thank those people who give their contribution to the book. This page is included as a front matter in Preface or before the Table of Contents,

Foreword: an introduction by someone other than the author, and it is usually a famous person. It precedes an author's preface, or it comes right after the table of contents.

Preface: an introduction to a book written by the work's author. A preface generally covers the story of how the idea for the book was developed, its intended purpose, and to what extent it covers the field. It is often followed by acknowledgements of persons who give help to the author during the time of writing.

Introduction: a writing by the author, or sometimes, the editor. It shows the full scope of a book. It also gives what the author's view is. It may guide the reader how he should stand on the way to reading. After scanning it one may know what fact-finding is and whether should read it or not.

Body: the text, the pages are usually numbered sequentially, and often divided into chapters,

the actual words of the book.

Appendix: usually extra material for helpful reference, i.e. a large table, materials that would distract if it were included as part of the main text. It may be one or more after the main text.

Glossary: a list of alphabetized collection of terms and their meanings often printed in the back of the book.

Index: an entry list of words or phrases of names and subjects in alphabetical order at the end of the book. It is associated with the reference pages by which readers can retrieve the necessary information of interest.

Bibliography: a list of reference books, articles etc. used by the author at the end of the text.

Colophon: A brief description of publication and printing data of a book relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the verso of the title page, but it was located at the end of the book in 15^th century.

Back cover: gives more information about the book and also same as the front cover.

After the interesting main parts, there is a partial part; moreover it is a useful thin marker, commonly known as bookmark. It is made of paper, card or narrow silk ribbons that attached to the edge of a book. Other materials become more common today.

Posted by Junk Guy