Blank Pages

They have those blank pages in case you take the book to the bathroom with you and find out there's no TP.

It's to do with the way the books are put together. Here's a lot of info on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionally_blank_page

Books are printed in pages of 16s: 32, 48, 64, 80, 16, etc. pp. Most books have a couple of pages of front matter, where title page, copyrights, legal, etc. ar printed, and a couple of pages in back for whatever (in nf, indices, resources, notes, etc. In fiction, often this is where they'll talk about the author's other books, review quotes, or even what kind of type is used). Usually you leave at least two (one page, front and back) pages blank in the front of the book just because it looks nicer, too. Sometimes the length of the printed text doesn't match up perfectly to the number of pages necessary for printing, so you'll have more blanks.

Maybe it has something to do with one page being connected (bound) to another. Perhaps the pages in the front (title page, forward, dedication page, table of contents, etc.) just do not have anything on their "other half". Oh, now I see some similar comments.

Nomad is correct. There are a set number of pages in a "fold" (look at a textbook and you'll see it's made up of many tiny booklet style folds). If your book doesn't match that count exactly at the end, the blank pages make up for it. It's cheaper to print it that way than to the exact end of the story.