The end comes after the last in certain situations, Faldage, but here we are counting. The end becomes a numerical place when we refer to positions in line--at least in this commonplace way of counting people in line, ducks in a row, dates on a calendar, pages in a book.
The end of a book would be in normal speech the last numbered page on which one found text. Sure, the book might have blank sheets after the end of the book, but the last page would be the same number as what we would ordinarily speak of as the end of the book. "I read that Michener novel in one night, from the first page to the last, start to finish, beginning to end! All 900 pages!" And the person would not mean any page after that last that did not include text when referring to the novel itself. (Of course, there's the problem with the first page rarely being page one in novels, but that's an altogether different situation.)
