Our belongings often carry more significance beyond monetary worth or specific uses. I turn to books and magazines because their primary function is to disseminate information via the written word or images, yet they embody an immense amount of personal emotion and cultural significance. As icons of intellect and status and as reminders of another person, time or place books and magazines accumulate on bookshelves, tables and floors. In this state, texts are more like inert sculptures than literary implement. They remind us of whom we are or want to be, as the qualities of the contents or materials reveal. I posit that ownership of and viewing specific publications as an object is more important than the words that are printed. We cannot remember any book verbatim, but the ideas imparted by a text are the critical element. Just as letters and words are symbols for specific ideas so are they vehicles by which the written language comes to us. Further, the objects that hold these words are symbols in themselves. The books and magazines that surround us act as signposts to our memories, intentions and the world around us.