How to Collect Books Like a Well-Informed Amateur

All you bibliophiles out there should like this; I learned a lot writing it. If you're a poor college student like me, many of these terms will not apply to you. They are only relevant to books you cannot afford. But they are useful if you ever decide to drool over books up for auction at Christie's, and also for impressing people in positions of authority. But just because you live on ramen noodles doesn't mean you can't start a really awesome book collection. If you're anything like me (and if you're reading this, you very likely are), you couldn't care less about first editions, dust jackets, or provenance. Go raid your grandparents' houses, flea market, estate sales, antique store, and garage sales. The most valuable things aren't always the most interesting; in fact, some of my favorite items cost me nothing at all, or just a dollar or two. Happy reading! 

• Acid Migration: This is caused by an old book coming into contact with something acidic. It looks like foxing, in that the pages will be tinted brown, but will usually be seen at the front or back of book.
• Biopredation: Insect damage
• Blind: Designs stamped on the book but not gilded
• Boards: The hard covers of a book
• Chipped: Small chips taken out of the spine of a book, or (more commonly) out of the dust jacket
• Cloth: A hardbound book covered with cloth
• Condition: Books are graded using the following categories: Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor. These are usually abbreviated, and often you will see something like "VG+" or "F-." This means a book is better than Very Good, but not quite Fine, or that a book is Fine, but almost Very Good. It's practically a universal system, but it is totally subjective.
• Device: Publisher's logo 
• Dust Jacket: Sometimes called the dust wrapper, this is one of the most important terms in book collecting. Personally, I hate dust jacket with a fiery passion, but they often are more valuable than the actual book. For example, one of my life goals is to own a first edition of The Great Gatsby, which was published in 1925. The book itself is quite simple, green cloth bound, and can be had in Very Good for around $2500. However, a first edition in the same VG condition, but with the famous dust jacket (you know, the one with the eyes) is worth around $750000. What a difference a dust jacket makes.
• Edition: This is another biggie. The first edition of a book is NOT the same thing as a first printing! Unless you are a serious book snob, it shouldn't matter to you, but don't overpay for a first printing if it's not that important to you. I'll continue with the "Gatsby" example. Scribner's agreed to publish an edition of Gatsby in 1925, and all 25000 of those original books are considered first edition. However, it took several printing runs to print up all 25000 copies, and the books labeled "First edition, first printing" are a lot more expensive than any other printings. For example, the cheapest first printing I can find right now is $85000. A first issue, second printing is worth only $35000.
• Errata: This is another term thrown around by true book snobs. I can't count the number of typos I've found in books; errors are inevitable, but they are found between printings and corrected. Errata are the mistakes used to identify certain editions and verify the authenticity of editions.
• Fly leaf: Blank page in the front of the book
• Fore edge: Part of the pages furthest away from the spine
• Fore edge painting: The fore edge is painted or dyed
• Format: This has confused me for a long time and took a good bit of digging to find a decent explanation. Often you'll see a book described in one of the following ways: folio, quarto (4to), octavo (8vo), sextodecimo (16mo, pronounced sixteen-mo), duodecimo (12mo, twelve-mo). Once upon a time, this described the number of times a piece of paper was folded before being bound, but now it indicates the approximate size of the book. Folio is a big book, taller than it is wide, like the size of an atlas. Quarto is pretty large and square. Octavo is a normal sized book. The other sizes are small books.
• Foxing: Yellowish or brownish specks on pages, brought about by age and climate
• Gilt: Real gilt is gold leaf pressed into indentations on a book cover, spine, or fore edge. However, these days gold color of any sort is also described as gilt. Gilt is very thin and often rubs off over time. In my collection, I only have two gilded books, both over 100 years old, but they are pretty.
• Head: Top of the book
• Illuminated: A page is decorated with gold or silver leaf or painted with silver and gold. Interestingly, a page just decorated with bright colors is not illuminated. That is called rubication.
• Inscribed: Book with a handwritten message to someone inside. This doesn't usually lessen the value of a book, though, personally, I like inscriptions. I like imagining the people who owned the book before me.
• Leaf: One page, front and back
• Marbling: Pages or covers dyed in a pattern of colorful swirls. Most popular in the 19th century.
• Married: Pairing a dust jacket with a book it didn't originally come from. That's kind of sneaky, but if the jacket is from the same edition and printing of it's not a huge deal. I'm doing sort of the same thing, cobbling together a set of Winston Churchill's "The Second World War." I'm only buying first American editions, but I still feel like I'm creating some sort of Franken-set.
• Point: A certain word or feature to look for in a book in order to determine the edition or printing.
• Recto: Right-hand page. If the book is laid out properly, it will always be an odd-numbered page.
• Slipcase: A common kind of case for a book
• Sunned: Discoloration of pages or spine due to exposure to the sun
• Tail: bottom of the book
• Threading: Insect damage
• Uncut: Rough page edges
• Unopened: Once upon a time, many books were sold unopened, meaning the edges of the pages were still attached to each other. Obviously, most books were opened at some point, so finding one in this condition is quite rare.
• Vellum: Untanned leather
• Verso: Left-handed side of the page. It should be always even numbered.
• Wrappers: Soft paper covers
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