Questions:

1) What role did books play in Alexies young life? How did they influence him? In what ways are we surrounded by texts now (assuming there arent books everywhere, which there very well may be)? Does what your parents read influence what you read?

2) How does Alexie think about paragraphs, both within books and in the world?

3) Why does Alexie write in the third person?

The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me Bom in 1966 and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, Sherman Alexie is one of the foremost Nativ American writers. He is best known for his fiction, from his first collec tion of stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction, to two novels, Reservation Blues (1995) and Indian Killer (199o). He has also written eleven books of poems, including "The Business of Fancydancing" (1991) and his latest, Dangerous Asuonomy (2005); screenplays, including that for the movie Smoke Signals f999), with Chris Eyre; and an alburn, with Jim Boyd, maade of songs from the book Reservation Blues. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" displays Alexie's characteristic mix of popular culture reference and reflection on what it means to be an Indian in today's America. As you read, note how carefully Alexie crafts what at first glance migh seem to be a slight essay. Note especially whe way images and phrases are repeated and the effect he constructs from these repetitions I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough. I suppose. I cannot rccall which particular Superman comic book read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue. I I cannot remember the plot, nor the means by which I obtained the comic book. What I can remembcr is this: I was 3 years old, a Spokane Tndian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and govern- ment surplus food y la Lier, who is one of the few Tndians who went to catholic school on purpose, was an avid reader of westerns, spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball playcr biographies and anything else he could find. He bought his books by the pound at Dutch's Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army and Value Village. When he had extra money, he bought new novels at super- markets, convenience stores, and hospital gift shops. Our house was filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bath