What were some of your favorite books as a child?
Tony Medina: This is a bit complicated, because I was one of those unfortunate kids who did not grow up with books in the house. The only person I ever saw reading was my grandmother and she’d read her Bible and cheap paperback novels. I didn’t even have children’s books. The only time I saw a children’s book was at school when we went to the library as a class. I developed a love of reading when I was around fifteen years old. I had to write a make-up book report that I had neglected to do because I didn’t have the patience or attention span for reading (all I wanted to do was watch TV and go outside and play). My teacher, Mr. De Los Reyes, gave me one last chance to do the report and handed me a list of books to choose from. I took the list to the library and chose a title that intrigued me for some reason, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I wanted to know what an "Algernon" was, so I looked up the book according to the librarian's instructions and was surprised to find it in the contemporary fiction section. I took the book home that Friday night and could not put it down.
Did you enjoy reading as a child? If so, what about reading gave you pleasure?
Tony Medina: What gave me pleasure was being transported into different worlds through words and language, and being able to imagine the characters, places, and situations as if they were starring in my own personal TV shows. I enjoyed having my imagination actively involved in the creation of the story, interpreting it in my own way. I thought this was far better than television because the images were already provided for me. I also loved the intimacy of entering into a conversation with a narrator or character whose thoughts I was privy to. This allowed me to find a certain level of solace in my overcrowded apartment full of aunts and uncles and cousins and TVs playing in every room. With books I learned to sit and be still and travel to different places. This really helped enhance my interior world, the world of my own thoughts and ideas, a world of dreaming. Falling in love with books and reading made me want to be a writer.
Who or what inspired your love of reading as a child?
Tony Medina: What gave me pleasure was being transported into different worlds through words and language, and being able to imagine the characters, places, and situations as if they were starring in my own personal TV shows. I enjoyed having my imagination actively involved in the creation of the story, interpreting it in my own way. I thought this was far better than television because the images were already provided for me. I also loved the intimacy of entering into a conversation with a narrator or character whose thoughts I was privy to. This allowed me to find a certain level of solace in my overcrowded apartment full of aunts and uncles and cousins and TVs playing in every room. With books I learned to sit and be still and travel to different places. This really helped enhance my interior world, the world of my own thoughts and ideas, a world of dreaming. Falling in love with books and reading made me want to be a writer.
Who or what inspired your love of reading as a child?
Tony Medina: After I read Flowers for Algernon, I received an A+ on my book report. I was hooked and started reading more books on the list my teacher had given me, which included A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Those books led to other books. I became a bookworm. I always had a book in my hand or in my pocket. I read everything that John Steinbeck wrote, and what was written about him. I developed a love of J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I started studying the writers I read, trying to teach myself how to be a writer. I loved reading so much, I wanted to have my own books. So I used what little money I would get for candies or allowance and instead of spending it on junk food, I'd buy paperbacks, which were relatively inexpensive. I began building my own personal library. Whenever I'd get depressed or lonely, I’d end up in a library or bookstore. Books became important friends to me. I developed a kinship with the writers I read. The more I read, the better my writing became. I really couldn't understand what my English teachers were talking about when it came to the rules of grammar and punctuation, but when I began reading James Baldwin's essays, I consciously began to study the way he structured and punctuated his sentences. These were some of the longest and most involved sentences I’d ever come across, and I was fascinated with how well he punctuated them.
Beyond Mr. De Los Reyes's second chance assignment and the librarian at the Throgsneck Library who helped me understand the card catalogue, I think I was inspired to love reading by words, language, the dream world that fiction transported me into, and, like Langston Hughes, loneliness. Reading, which is a solitary activity, actually took away my loneliness and blues. And reading made me want to be a writer. That was the one thing that stuck with my ever-changing mind. Reading opened all types of doors for me—from understanding myself and others, to trying to figure out the world, to achieving my goals and living out my dreams.
About Tony Medina: born in the South Bronx, raised in the Throgs Neck Housing Projects, and currently lives in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. He is the award-winning author of twelve books for adults and children, and a poet.
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