letters from inmates

i spent last night at a volunteer project called books for prisoners. it took me 45 minutes to get out to quincy after work to find a unitarian parish church that has a library of used books in its basement. to call it a library is too grand. a hot, stuffy, windowless room full of shelves and boxes of books hastily organized into sections: westerns, romance, classic fiction, hobbies, psychology, self-help, new, dictionaries, sci-fi, GLBT, black history, native american history, US history, religion, the occult, etc etc.

every day they get dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of letters from inmates around the country asking for books to be delivered. some of the requests vague: the first letter i read said 'i like historical romance and westerns' to very specific requests: 'i would like the 'The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson' ... hardly ever would they have a perfect match - but often could get somewhat close. one of the only letters from a woman i received said she liked anything by mary higgins clark - and thankfully, there were two on the shelf. she got them both.

so the first two hours we spent reading letters and chosing books - getting as close as we could to their requests. and the final hour i spent packing the books. they get a postcard first, so that they know exactly what to look for in the post. the books are sent 3rd class, so come a few weeks later.

it was a shame that we couldn't write any personal messages, but i suppose there were just too many books to pack to be personal. and perhaps there are rules against it. i don't know.

the man who requested historical romance novels i sent lolita - but wondered whether that was the sort of romance he spoke of. (actually, he also mentioned erotica ... so i thought, what the heck!) i desperately wanted to stick a note in there that said something like 'stick with it ... it takes awhile but you'll love it' or something of the sort.

the jails had all sorts of rules as well. some inmates could only get paperbacks, some had to be brand new books, others weren't allowed dictionaries (apparently the jails have some kind of profiteering going on with the dictionary industry), others could only have 2 books, others had to include an invoice so the could track exactly what should have been in there, others couldn't contain wire or spiral bound books - for obvious reasons.

the books, i suppose, are donated from all sorts of places and people - because there really were all sorts of books. no bibles - as apparently there is another organization that gives strictly bibles. but other free books from buddhists and other religious groups. there was a spanish version of a course in miracles that i was tempted to give away to one of the inmates looking to learn spanish ... but it's hard enough to grasp in english. i wasn't sure the spanish version would help.

and i wondered how long 'do what you love and the money will follow' would sit on the shelf. hard to imagine a request for that from an inmate.

it was inspiring yet sad. but nice to work on a project with such tangible results. knowing that in 3 weeks, someone will be reading himself to sleep with lolita because of me. (perhaps he'll hate me for that one!)

in any case, it made me think of how many books i have sitting on my shelf (or had in the UK) that i had absolutely no need for. and what a great way to get rid of them. think about it if you've got some books on your shelf!