People often ask me what I'm reading these days, so I have compiled my annual list of books read over the last year. An asterisk * indicates a recommended book and a # indicates fave of the year. Here goes:
- Pawn of Prophecy, David Eddings
- Film Club, David Gilmer
- Once a Runner, John L. Parker Jr. *
- Best Short Stories of Jack London
- New Glass Architecture, Brent Richards
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
- The Theory of Everything, Steven Hawking
- Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
- Halo: the Fail of Reach, Eric Nyland
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
- The Siege, Ismail Kadare *
- Dreaming Up America, Russell Banks
- The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova *
- Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
- The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
- Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw, Thomas Glavinic
- Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson *
- Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol
- The Flanders Panel, Arturo Perez-Reverte
- The Host, Stephanie Meyer
- Angel Tracks in the Himalayas, Gary Shepherd
- Halting State, Charles Stross
- Empire, Orson Scott Card
- Wild at Heart, John Eldredge
- Green, Ted Dekker
- I Am American (And So Can You), Stephen Colbert
- The Driver, Alex Roy
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
- Girl With Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace *
- Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery * #
- Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
- Unlikely Disciple, Kevin Roose *
- Usagi Yojimbo (various volumes), Stan Sakai
- Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson *
- Fables (various volumes), Bill Willingham
- Give Me Liberty, Frank Miller
- Born to Run, Christopher McDougal *
- Boomsday, Christopher Buckley
- Return of the Dark Knight, Frank Miller
- Batman:Year One, Frank Miller
- The Learners, Chip Kidd
- Lowboy, John Wray
- Sandman, Vol 1, Neil Gaiman
- A Friendly Game, Joe Pimienta
- Sex God, Rob Bell
- The Other, David Guterson
- The Infernal City, Greg Keyes
- The Marquis, Guy Davis
- Eifelheim, Michael Flynn *
- The Queen's Gambit, Walter Tevis
- The World According to Garp, John Irving
- The Prodigal God, Tim Keller
- Ghost World, Dan Clowes
- Maus, Art Speigelman
- Reading Comics, Douglas Wolk
- Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller * #
- Y: The Last Man (various volumes), Brian K Vaughn *
- Rural Studio: Sam Mockabee and an Architecture of Decency, Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley
Well, this is our last day of Quarantine and it was made even more difficult by a power outage. For some reason, maintenance turned off power in our pod this morning and left it off until 1 PM. This meant no TV - the real pacifier in the baby inmate's mouth - or radio, hot pots, or lights. That knocked out 90% of these guys' entertainment.A cheer went up when the power came back, but then some groaning. Half of the cells in the dorm still weren't getting power. Maintenance came back and it wasn't until 4PM that power was fully restored. Or so I thought.
When I went to my cell to listen to the radio, I noticed that a red 12:00 wasn't blinking back at me. My cell still didn't have power. I asked the guard in the picket to call maintenance back, but they were gone for the day. Great! The guard said they would fix it in the morning. I guess I've got an excuse when I show up to work late - no alarm.
Yesterday I was called back from work to the pod, which I knew could only mean one thing: quarantine. Three days stuck in the pod, even for chow. Meals are delivered to us while the sick ones stayed in their cell.
This weekend was supposed to be free picture weekend at visitation, the first time I've ever seen pictures taken during visits on this unit. And now the whole pod is locked down. the major said he would try to get pictures for us next weekend but some guys had visitors come from far away (one guy from North Carolina) especially to see them. Now they wasted money and time traveling the long distance.
The worst part is that the guy who claims to be sick isn't really. He claimed to be sick to avoid having to go to a lay-in, and when they took it seriously and called him to the infirmary, he made up an elaborate story. Now they think he might have a crazy disease and sent a stool sample to Austin to be tested. If positive, we will be locked down in quarantine for a month. I can guarantee the test comes back negative.
This facility is going to be on national TV. All day there has been a film crew here for the show CHASE, that is on NBC. None of the filming, that I know of, was done inside the unit, but they used our rec yard and truck dock. Most of the afternoon a helicopter was doing stunts and what looked like an escape scene on the rec yard.
This isn't the first time filming has been done here. The movie Bottle Rocket was partially filmed here in the 90's. And I'm sure the inmates were inconvenienced back then, too. School was canceled and everything shut down except the kitchen. They made special food for dome of the crew, which there were more of than I imagined was necessary.
Their trucks were parked side-by-side, were at least 100 feet wide and they seemed to move like ants, always moving things around. What was funny to watch were the sergeants of the prison trying to help but just getting in the way. I hope they were humbled a little.
Over the past two days both work and home life (though they are both in the same building) have changed quite a bit. I have a new cellie at one end and a new coworker at the other.
On Monday, Juan moved to go to the kitchen workers' dorm and was replaced by a young guy named Chris. My new cellmate is only 18 and entered prison just two months ago. I hope he isn't dragged into stupid stuff like a lot of other youngsters looking for approval. He seems to have a good head on his shoulder, but only time will tell. I'll try to be as encouraging as I can while dissuading him from the dumb stuff.
Yesterday, Shane w
as replaced by a guy named Dustin. I'm not too sure about him. He goes by "Sin" because it is tattooed on the back of his neck with "666" hidden inside. It couldn't be more stereotypical of a prison tattoo if he had "Mom" in a pierced heart. As long as he works and doesn't let his gang affiliation influence the workplace, it should be okay. He says he has changed over the past two years (he's been incarcerated for eight) but, like my cellie, only time will tell.
Today was a lot of fun, more than I've had in a long time. The population put on a talent show for a few staff judges and a crowd of inmates. And somehow I wound up performing Elvis.
One of the ladies that works in the mailroom is a die-hard Elvis fan and had a few guys do one of his songs for the talent show last year. The same guys were supposed to play this year, but backed out. I noticed the mailroom lady looking kind of down one day when I picked up periodicals for the library. When I found out about the other guys backing out, I told her that I would sing and play guitar. If she could get me chords and lyrics to a song, I would talk to the organizer about filling the empty spot.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been going to choir practice to borrow a guitar to play in the hallway, working on getting "Return to Sender" down pat. To make the performance more interesting, I made a cape and scarf with letters in gold glitter scripts spelling "Elvis Presley". Today the mailroom lady brought huge gold sunglasses and glue-on sideburns. After that little bit of work, I was ready.
Most of the twenty acts for the talent show were rap songs with the exact same beat, but there were a few original R & B performances and some truly terrible covers of country and rock songs.
When it came time for me to go on I gathered some guys to act as shields to hide me from the audience while I crept up to the microphone. Once everything was set I signaled the guys to split away to leave me there, back to the audience, arms forming a "Y". I slowly spun to face the applause - and I hadn't done anything yet.
After a short intro, I belted "Return to Sender" in my best Elvis voice. It must have been alright because, by the time I finished, about half the audience was standing and clapping. I took off my sunglasses, patted my forehead, and walked over to the judges before tossing the scarf to the mailroom lady, who screamed and twirled it in the air.
As I passed the assistant warden going offstage, he just smiled and shook his lowered head.
