I just had a question about books that know one has been able to answer me.

You know in books (I think only novels), that every 10 to 30 pages or so, there will be a page with three stars (* * *) one either the top or bottom of the page.

I just never knew what the reason for this was. I'd like it if someone could tell me. Thanks.

From what I understand, those stars are a way of breaking up the aciton within a chapter without changing the entire purpose of the chapter itself. Kind of like how a movie will offer a scene change, cut scene or flashback, without having an actual schematic shift to the next act.

Recently, especially in more mainstream writing, novels tend to fluctuate storylines within chapters without specifying the change. In a sense, the "chapter" has become less a significant mark or change within a novel, and has evolved (or devolved) into just a way to break up the writing into easier-managable parts.

Having just finished editing a textbook, I can also point out that three stars can indicate a point of editing. When trimming one large article into a smaller chunk, and leaving out a whole section, the three stars at the top or bottom indicates an editor's excision. I'm not sure this is a convention used in fiction.