What is 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 I first opened the book I noticed the use of readership right away. The paratext used on the very first page by saying who the book belonged to and it was a person by the name of 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 book whereas the other pages felt glossy and almost like plastic.
After the ownership page there was a title page. On the title page it just had the title of the book. Following the title page there was a picture of a building with a caption. Next to the picture there was another title page with more information given about the book. This title page included the dates the book was written along with who compiled and edited the book. On this page it also showed where the book was published. The page following the in depth title page was a dedication page. To me this is one of the paratexts I found most interesting. The reason why I found it interesting is the way they worded the dedication. Dedication was stated as followed, “To those who have given of their lives or their means to bring the spirit of education to its present