Big Bad Book Blog has an interesting post about the uneven, zigzag edges on certain books. She did a little investigating, and "discovered that (the) rough, untrimmed page edges are called deckle edges or just simply rough trimmed."
She also found out this little bit o' history:
"A deckle is a wood frame resting on or hinged to the edges of the mold that defines the edges of the sheet in handmade paper process. According to history.com, the rough edges are created by the fibrous pulp flowing between the frame and the deckle of the mold. When books were predominantly composed of handmade paper, deckle edges were considered a defect and were trimmed off. In the late 1800s, however, rough trimmed pages became fashionable. During this time, many books were left untrimmed on one or three sides for purely aesthetic reasons."
Is it only a matter of time before the E-books try and replicate this, as well?