Paratext

What does it mean for a book to have paratext(s)? Before, I took this class I had no idea what the word even met. According to A. Leverkuhn and Andrew Jones, paratext “is any additional text or other reference material that is added to an author’s published work.” For this assignment I got the opportunity to look at the book, The Educational Blue Book and Directory Church of the Brethren and it used a variety of different forms of paratexts in the beginning of the book along with the end of the book. Personally, I believe that paratexts this book used was extremely beneficial and made the book complete, without the paratexts I think that the book would have been easily misinterpreted.

When you first open the book you noticed the use of readership. The paratext used on the very first page is who the book belonged to, E. N. Goshorn along with certain family members related to the owner of the book. This page also had a date. I am assuming date was for when the book was received. This page did not seem feel like the same type of paper as rest of the book, it felt like a normal...