keep the bookmatching but rough plane at 45 deg to the wood in a cross hatch pattern. a toothed roughing blade can help here. then a standard blade, then move to a a nice sharp scraper. or run it through a thickness sander if you can.
"My next question is, is there any way of telling the extent of the runout before buying a piece?"
just follow the grain with your eyes from one end of the board to the other and look for any that "fall off" the glue joint edge of the board. also look for any twisting of grain from one end to the other.
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