My religion growing up was books. Books were sacred and precious in my family. Books let me learn things I never could on my own and go places I couldn't go. For my working class family of mill workers and mariners and shop keepers, they were excited to have a book learner in the family who might be able to earn a living with their mind, and they kept me in books. But it would have been sacrilege to deface a book in any way.

I know intellectually that books are not sacred, but I can't get past my upbringing.