/lit/ - Literature

The Count of Monte Christo

the joy of gay sex
he will learn to appreciate prison rape

The Stranger

Writings by some stoic philosopher.
C&P is not a bad choice.
Death and the Dervish.

>>1067368

I wouldn't want anyone to sit through Crime and Punishment. I'm a lit nerd but that book's blandness brings me to tears.

>>1067372

>Crime and Punishment
>bland

Too deep for you

What is he in prison for?

Mein Kampf

>>1067381

Drug Dealing

>>1067382

lol

infinite jest

>>1067373
more like too shallow for him.

>>1067383
Infinite Jest, if you think he'll sit through whatever book you send him. It's all about addiction, but it's more realistic than just a moral "drugs are bad" thing.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

Or On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius.

Don't send him a philosophy book unless he's already into it. He probably wouldn't get anything out of it. A novel is the best choice.

>>1067397
Excellent suggestions.

Also, The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius

>>1067387
>>1067390

Two recommendations. I'll send this if nothing else comes up. I'll try to read it before I send it though.

>>1067390
>>1067387

I'd third this but I think we need more info. Does he read at all? A lot? etc. more about him other than "He's in prison for dealing drugs" would be helpful. Life-changing books are an individual thing and you know him a lot better than we do.

>>1067399
>implying a novel has any re-readability

>>1067407
I wasn't suggesting sending him The Pelican Brief. You're a fool if you even think that philosophy books get philosophical contexts across better than a novel could, especially to somebody who doesn't read often. Students like to be lectured, normal folk like to feel emotion.

>>1067399

I'm gonna have to agree on this. Maybe I could send him an intro to philosophy or something... but putting him in Hard Mode right off the bat would be too much.

the tao of pooh

Memoirs from the House of the Dead
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Count of Monte Cristo
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Last Days of Socrates
Gramsci - The Prison Notebooks
Night

>>1067417
Cause the one thing people in prison loooove to read about is being imprisoned.

>>1067406

He does read, but he's not the philosophy kind of guy. I'm not sure he could wrap his head around it. It doesn't have to be life changing, those were my mom's words. I mean, i'm trying to send him one book for him to sit on and really think about.

the room by hubert selby jr.
/tttthrreeeadddd

>>1067417

lol'd

>>1067422
Well then if you really think he'd be able to read Infinite Jest then you should take the others' suggestions. It really isn't that challenging but it is long and takes a while to get into. It will give him quite a bit to think about and I'm sure he'll have plenty of time to read it.

>>1067429

I know, I did too. lol.

There's also a lot of tension between us. We never liked each other at all. Long story. Maybe I should send him this in spite.

>>1067397
This, all the way.
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is your only choice OP.

>>1067439
this anon is right

>>1067403
>>1067446
>>1067397
>>1067439

Found it online. Reading it now.

get him the zen karmics comic

http://www.engaged-zen.org/Zen%20Karmics/ZK1_2.html

it's made by a zen monk who visits prisons and teaches inmates how to man the fuck up and understand their situation better, hes even been to sing sing

I'm backing the Meditations, but I'll put Notes from the Underground out there, too.

>>1067358


finnegans wake

and a cyanide pill

Something that's going to take him forever to read.

The Tale of Genji

>>1067478
>sending a story about royalty to a prison inmate

>>1067478

That's hardly the longest novel, is it?

>>1067358

jizz in your moms eye, the secret is the last thing he needs right now.

this definitely changed my life back in those days

The Gulag Archipelago.

>Zing.

Convict Conditioning

You could try some nice short story collections, for example The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr or St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell. They're not "life-changing" but inspiring and not overly depressing.

I also have a recommendation for you, OP: Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman.

>>1067679

Why is the guy on the cover breakdancing?

...Do they breakdance in prison?

>>1067693
There is lots of gangsters in prisons.. They guy is breakdancing to get his props and respect.. duh

The Secret out of the question, but Crime and Punishment is 'good?'

Superstition is superstition is superstition. If you don't want your brother turning to metaphysical hocus pocus, I doubt hooker-reads-him-gospels is any better.

>>1067693

discipline and punish: the birth of the prison by foucault

>>1067740
>has never read Crime & Punishment

>>1067750
This! This! This!

Godel Escher Bach

Don Quixote

>>1069149
This or Moby Dick