What is a Book to You?

     In the book Patterns for a Purpose I read an essay called Never Do That to a Book it was about how different people love a book. Let me tell you the type of person I am when it comes to how I take care of a book and what kind of reader I am.
     I think some of the worst things you can do to a book is hold it from the bottom while you read, fold the corner in to mark your place, and to flatten the book open so that the binding has a crease down the center of it. I am a booklover. I love to read books and I am not opposed to writing in them (partially because my dad does) but to bend and ruin a book I absolutely DO NOT agree with. You are not supposed to hold the door open with a book or use it as a coaster for your drink. However I am not opposed to reading a book in the bathtub or at a pool, because if something happens it was either my accidental doing or someone elses. The point is it can be an accident but you should not purposefully ruin a book.
     That is the kind of reader I am. I like to take care of my books and if something happens then something happens. I can recall a memory through the sand in a book or the water that left the pages wavy or even a nasty black spot on a page that used to be a bug. Books hold memories for me and if I purposefully ruin them like that then there are too many memories to remember.
     I believe one thing the author said in here and that is "Just think what courtly lovers miss by believing that the only thing they are permitted to do with books is read them!" That is so true because there is a greater purpose to books; they hold memories. They hold sacred stories and symbols that are just lying there waiting for someone to pick them up and not just read them but find the meaning behind it; find the symbols. A book is something that should make us all think and wonder about the world. But, you don't have to destroy one in order to do that.
     I believe books are supposed to be cherished and loved, not destroyed and beaten.