Book excerpt: This is the first volume of a graduate-level textbook series in the area of Algebraic Quantum Symmetry. The focus of this book series is on how one can do abstract algebra in the setting of monoidal categories. It is intended for readers who are familiar with abstract vector spaces, groups, rings, and ideals, and the author takes care in introducing categorical concepts from scratch. This book series on Symmetries of Algebras is intended to serve as learning books to newcomers to the area of research, and a carefully curated list of additional textbooks and articles are featured at the end of each chapter for further exploration. There are also numerous exercises throughout the series, with close to 200 exercises in Volume 1 alone. If you enjoy algebra, and are curious about how it fits into a broader context, this is for you.