There’s this friend of mine. She’s a perfectly nice person in her way but she’s a bit eccentric and has a teeny problem with intoxicants. She also likes to drive. :smack: She likes driving and intoxicants so much that she’s now a sittin’ in a Broward County jail awaiting probation. As a friend living out of state, I want to send her some reading material that’s going to be entertaining and will also get past the goobers charged with the responsibility of pawing through her incoming mail. So far they’ve taken away her copy of “House of Bush House of Saud” on the grounds that it’s controversial literature (thanks, Jeb). The task, therefore, strikes me as finding something that will appeal to her in her situation but has a significance not immediately apparent to the present loutish guardians of her intellectual life. So far, all I’ve come up with is “The Count of Monte Christo.”
I need ideas. Won’t you please help?
Oh, and I realize full well that this is the sort of question to attract the attention of ambitious would-be wags. Please feel free to fire away but, while you’re at it, try to come up with one or two actual suggestions. Thank you.
Check the jail rules. Some will only allow books to be sent directly from the book store. Most chain bookstores are familiar with the rules in their area and they might also have an idea of which books would not be confiscated.
If I was sending someone books, I wouldn’t try for a jail theme particularly. Anything that you know she’ll enjoy would work. The closest I can come to the jail theme is Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. It’s fantasy humor, though, and not everyone goes for that. The main character has an old drinking problem. That’s probably what made me think of it.
How about some Steven King? The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile come to mind. Or Jack Henry Abbott’s In The Belly of the Beast. If she’s of a more literate mind, there’s Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer.
My guess is they’d nix all the Stephen King ones as insufficiently reverential towards their chosen prison while The Belly of the Beast would probably also be regarded as sending the wrong message.
The Fixer on the otherhand is great literature and, I’ll bet, just obscure enough to get past her cultural gatekeepers.
My guess is they’d nix all of the Steven King ones as insufficiently reverential towards their chosen profession while The Belly of the Beast would probably also be regarded as sending the wrong message.
Those inspired by this thread to donate books to prisoners might look at this Prison Book Program for more information. As noted above, some prisons only accept books sent from recognized sources.
See? See? It’s ElvisL1ves’ fault! I had originally put down “Stephen” King but changed it when I noticed Elvisl1ves’ spelling and made the classic mistake of assuming that the other person was right, thus blundering in an attempt to correct my non-existent error. :smack: Once again I have been foolishly led astray by unwarrented self doubt.
Obviously, this calls for yet another expansion of my prickish ego.
