The primary concern is whether you are going to print your book in a onesid= e or twosides format. Normally, a book is a twoside-printing document (master/doctor thesis are e= qually applicable). In which case, it is "un-standard" to see important pag= es like bookcover, acknowledgement, abstract, ToC, LoF, LoT, chapters, appe= ndix, etc, etc to show up on even page when reading a book.=20 A practical way to check whether a book is properly layouted is to view it = via=20 an acrobat reader in a two-page format, then you will see all the crucial p= ages showing up on the left side of your screen because the left column are= all odd pages. Only then you will appreciate why the right column (even si= de) are made blank for twoside printing.=20 For a book class, LateX will automatically start ToC, LoF, LoT, and chapter= s on odd pages because these are important pages for readers. It has a buil= t-in function such as "frontmatter", "mainmatter" and "backmatter" that wil= l change the type (roman or numeral) of page numering automatically too.= =20 Such practice is signified by an "openright" option in the documentclass[..= ..]. There is another option called "openany"; you may give a try to see if = that suit your needs (but I never tried it becasue I do like the idea of th= ose practices and follow it.)=20 A second approach is to use report class, which provides a style different = from a book class. =20 The final point is it all depends on what your objectives are. You may desi= gn a different style for a particular purpose, such as a class file for you= r thesis because every university has their own flavors and thus varies acc= ordingly. To tackle the last attempt, rolling on your own style, it requires a design= er to have a certain knowledge in TeX/LaTeX, demanding times-spent in LaTeX= and constant curiosity in LaTeX.=20