Bookmaking
This is the view from my side of the counter. A book is a business with a thin margin and a lot of risk, and most of what puzzles a player about it makes sense once you see the sums the bookmaker is doing.
Seven pages, one job
Each page takes one part of the work. Two are about the money: vigorish, the cut built into every price, and hold, what the book actually keeps once the games are graded. Two are about the number: line setting, where it comes from, and odds movement, what makes a book change it.
Two more are about the things I lost sleep over. Exposure is what the book stands to lose on a result, and risk management is what it does about that: limits, lay-offs and knowing your players. The last, software operations, is what a pay-per-head office does for a bookie (which is less than the sales call suggests).
Where I'd start
I'd read vigorish first, then exposure. Between them they explain nearly everything a book does to you: why the price is what it is, why your limit is what it is, and why the parlay is on the front page.
Read them even if you never plan to take a bet in your life. You bet better when you know what the man on the other side is worried about.