On about books, we delve into the latest news about the Publishing Industry with interesting insider interviews with Publishing Industry experts. Well also give you updates on current nonfiction authors and books, the latest book reviews, and well talk about the current nonfiction books featured on cspans book tv. Welcome to the about books podcast and program. Joining us in just a few minutes is regional dwayne bett, hes an author and founder of an organization that provides books for incarcerated people. But first, heres a look at one social media phenomenon taking the Publishing Industry by storm. Its called book talk. Its where users of the social media site tiktok record themselves reviewing, reacting to or even acting out books, and then they post the videos using the booktok. Book tok began during the pandemic. Today more than 11 million book tok videos exist with over 60 billion, with a b, views. Heres just one recent example. Telling you if its worth the hype. Yes. Deals with more than romance. We get it. Youre short. Opened up my perspective on relationships, no. Way too long and repettific. So much fun, yes. Good but not as much as everyone says. Yes. Love isnt always a happy ending. Now, according to a New York Times story, book tok helped authors sell 20 million print books last year. And book sellers are certainly taking notice of the sales potential. Barnes and noble partnered with tiktok for what it calls the book tok challenge. Readers are encouraged to read a book, and post about it using the booktok. Several tiktok influencers are working to promote the challenge. Heres one of those posts. The easiest way to travel to new places is by reading a book. This is a book about magical realism. Incredible book. I want to hear you what guys are reading. Please tell me what book youre reading, the genre, everything. Public libraries have also embraced this technology. Some have entire web pages devoted to booktok trending titles. Others, like the Scarsdale Public Library in new york have started their own booktok book club. Speaking of libraries, the focus now on one particular kind of library. Freedom reads is a group looking to bring books to prison. Theyre known as freedom libraries. And were joined now by the founder and director of freedom reads, Reginald Duane betts. What is freedom read . Its interesting. I think freedom reads is in some ways my life story. But its in some ways a story of literature. It is this organization so that we build microlibraries and we install them in prisons. We dont just put them in prisons at some location as a away from housing. We put it where you spend 70 , 80 of your time. We put it in the Housing Units. The book shelfs are curb curved curved. Theyre made out of walnut or maple and a 500book collection has been curated by me and discussions and conversations with many others. It really is just an argument for the fact that we need books because they make us less lonely. We need books because they make us feel more connected to the world and we read books because they make us know ourselves better. Where did you get the idea . You have had an idea you feel like has been with you your entire life . I went to prison when i was 16. I confessed to carjacking somebody. I was at miloest point. I was in prison and i at my lowest point. I was in prison and i needed experiences to the world based with a nineyear prison sentence, i wanted to be able to grow and develop and found that in books. I found books that created opportunities for me to go to the places that i couldnt go to, to dream the dreams i couldnt conjure for myself. Most importantly, i found books as a way to connect to my family and the people around me. So that was the foundation. I became a writer. Thats a primary way i vowed to make that an impact on the world and really on the lives of others. You seem very specific about the design of the book shelf being curved and walnut. And the number of books, 500. Why is that . The design, you know, its interesting. The design is like this. It creates an opportunity for people to browse books and it allows you to do it in community. It allows people to be together around books and engage with those books. You think about the books that could sustain you, to live with over a fiveyear period, sixyear period, and 500 seems to be just that number. Even if you dont read all of them, you can become familiar with all of them. The idea was to give you something that wasnt overwhelming but will give you a glimpse into the whole history of literature, from the iliad and odyssey to the storied life of a. J. Finishingry. Do the prisons have a say in what kind of books can go into these librarys . Reginald they have a say, they decide some of them cant go in. And that has happened very rarely. Ive had a book approved by every prison we worked with. I think because we built one of these freedom libraries for the staff as well, so this isnt just a project solely directed at people incarcerated. We want to build relationships and communities and conversations across the wall and between everybody that goes in there, whether they go in there to work or they go in there to serve time. Because we build one for the staff, too i think they recognize that the books are also put in and if something comes up, its usually around if something ever comes up, i know it will be around Institutional Security and understand that but we havent had to deal with that as of yet. How many prisons are you in and what is that the process of getting this library in a prison . Reginald right now were in prisons in massachusetts in louisiana, in new york, in colorado, and also in illinois. And were on the road to being in north dakota and several other states. The process is i had the great opportunity to present to the leaderships. Each of the past couple of years. So they heard me talk about the project, they heard me present the project. And basically they reach out to us so we reach out to them. Then its just a process of going through the steps where they send us particular prisons that they choose to partner with. Some prisons already have a library program. Some dont. We choose the places where this would be the most beneficial. They send us the layout, the housing unit, they send us the layout of whatever space where they want it to be. It might be a recreation room thats adjacent to the housing unit. Once we get the layout, we work with our design team, they partnered with us from the very beginning and basically we designed what the space will look like in the library. Then they approve it and we deliver them. When we deliver them, i usually talk, we have an event, we bring another writer in to have an event. The other thing that happens when youre in prison, is nobody comes to see you. Nobody when you set up your book tour, dont think, let me go to the local prison. And so the other thing were doing with freedom reads is making those on the inside visible. Charles dickens is still probably most parol tphepbt prominent writer to visit an american prison and that says something really shameful. We want to correct. That we want to get riders opportunities to come inside and see what its like to be inside a prison. But maybe more importantly, to have those serving time see more possibility. Because if you go to any college in this country, you have dozens of speakers coming in every month, if not every week. So we want to create some of that for the people in prison. So theres more possibility. What you have heard from some of the prisoners about these libraries . Reginald i actually have a letter right here. People are excited about the books. I remember one time, i was talking to a group of guys who had the Freedom Library with them and the guy tells me, he says, i never heard of this book, but im italian. And ive been locked up for more than 25 years. And my family is from this small region of italy that this book is about. I know its a novel, but it feels like im meeting my family for first time in decades. And i think its just been a lot of radical possibilities like that. People saying how much they appreciate the opportunity to engage with these books, but also how much they appreciate the opportunity to engage with writers that we send inside with the books. You have run into the problem of little literacy illiteracy in the prison . Reginald yeah. This is the front end of the project. So we are expecting that to happen. And what were doing to counter that. Because also by having the books in the space, its not just inviting people that already love books. Its allowing it to be a place for you to go to discover. One of the things we do by having people come in, and usually the writers come in and they read from their own works, but they also read some beloved poems, passages from other people, to encourage this notion of reading and reading out loud, not just being from your own work. But finally, we have a theater program. I turned my last selection of poems into a oneperson solo show. The reason did i that is because i wanted my words to be able to live in the air and i wanted my words to be able to bridge that literacy gap. So its me performing poems and telling stories, but it gives you a glimpse of whats inside the book. And we have a project where we work with this Organization Called literature to light, where they turn oscar wild or others, they turn these books, fahrenheit 4 51, they turn them into solo shows which allows the book to come in and be alive. When we bring 50 copies or 100 copies of that same book, now all of a sudden the person who is little literal who is illiterate understands a book is a collection of words that tells a story. Recognizing that they can hear the story and understand the story might prompt them to do the work thats necessary to begin to read the book. So we do think about the literacy challenge and we think that the Freedom Library is an intervention in that as well. Not only because it brings books into your living space but because we bring writers and we bring them the stories that can live in the air, that encourage you to want to discover whats between the pages of a book. Reginald dwayne betts. You were incarcerated at age 16 for carjacking. How long were you in . Reginald i was in for about 8 1 2 years. Did you have access to books or did you start writing while you were in prison . Reginald i started writing when i was in prison. The main reason is because, confronted with my own failures and making my mother weep, i wanted to figure out what i could be in the world and not just weight the years. I decided to be waste the years. I decided to be a writer for no other reason than i knew id have an access to a pen and some paper of. I had always loved books but never considered the possibility of becoming a writer. When i went inside, i got books, my mother sent me money to buy books. My family members brought books to me. I was the g. E. T. Instructor g. E. D. Instructor. She gave me sophies choice. I told her i was looking for sophies world. She said, i think youre mistaken. You should read this one. I was 16 years old reading sophies choice and im all arrogant thinking, woe is me, all of a sudden i understand profound struggles that i had no real glimpse of. I remember reading a lesson before dying and it deeply changing what i thought about what it means to have dignity. Throughout my time in prison, books werent always readily available. They werent on the Housing Units and thats why i framed the project in this way. You have to go to the library. I did time in prisons that didnt have libraries at all. I did time in supermax prisons that didnt allow us to leave our Housing Units so there was no possibility of going into a library but we still found books. We were desperate for books. So i worked jobs, sometimes i worked a whole month to buy one book. You work 40 hours just to buy one collection of poetry. And you realize that words matter, words are like the life bread for some folks. I did 8 1 2 years and what allowed me to survive beyond the men i did time with that became my brothers, what really allowed me to survive beyond the love of my family, my mom and the other folks who supported me, the thing that allowed me to survive long stretches in solitary confinement, the despair, the sort of sorrow, the regret, what allowed me to deal with it was books. It was literature. Mr. Betts, do you remember the first thing you wrote and first time you put a pen to paper . In prison . Reginald i probably got it in the closet. I remember the first book that led me to write. At first i was just writing he isnts. They were made essays. They were just meandering essays. I believed i had something thought tofl say, but i didnt. Amongst the poets i discovered, sonia sanchez, lucille cliffton, all these folks i discovered, i learned that he was in prison and because he had served time in prison and had become a writer, i thought i could become a writer and i could become a poet. Because i already said i would be a writer but i didnt know what kind. It was only a year after saying i would be a writer that i learned to know i would be a poet. Those first poems were really about time in prison. Thats the first time i thought this was a worthy subject to write about. And i just i imitated the poems that i read and i tried to become these people were like marvel characters to me. I was trying to become sterling brown, i wanted to write like these folks. A lot of my early work was just mimicry. What is it about poetry and why is that important to you . Reginald its a Joseph Broski line. He said, i survived while a wild beast in cages. You were connected to this guy who was russian and experienced exile. That line connects his experience to mine. Come celebrate with me. Every day something has tried to kill me and has failed. Thats lucille cliffton. You can carry one line of poetry in your head and its a whole world. What did i know . What did i know of love. These lines by these poets are more than just depict the moment. They reveal the world. Each time you say it, it reveals a different aspect of the world. So i think for me, when i found poetry, i found the possibility in a matter of 14 lines or 20 lines or 30 lines, capturing everything that people aim for in a novel. Everything that people aim for in a short story. How many books you have published . Reginald i published four. And i got one coming out in january called redaction which is filled with new poetry. That will be my fifth book. Which is astonishing in some ways because i said i wanted to be a writer and then i said i wanted to be a poet. I never said i wanted to publish books. My relationship to the idea of writing and even my relationship to books wasnt what it means to publish it. My relationship to these oblts was through the possibilities that they held for me. It was only much later when i came home from prison that i realized that people werent printing the books out on their printers at home. It was the first because i hadnt gone to book stores before i went to prison either. So libraries were these magical places where the books were something dropped off by a store. The books just showed up. In some ways thats what freedom reads is. These books just showing up, as if dropped off. The media that matters is the word. Its not even the publisher, its not the awards that come with it. The only thing that matters is the stories that are contained theren. The fact therein. The only reason writers matter, if you read a good book, the writer should disappear. The only reason the writer matters, they become so important and urgently so that you want to discover them again in the next book and the next book and the next book. And so i published four books and have one on the way. I never imagined that i would its not that i didnt imagine that i would publish books, that just wasnt the point. And im glad that ive gotten to this destination because i think the journal has been what hazmattered which is trying to write something that matters to myself and to people who are generous enough to read me. If the words are so good the writer should disappear, im going to use that line if i may. You got out of prison 24, 25 years old. Whats been the path since then . Reginald i got out of prison and didnt know i went to the university of maryland. Its been through an endless process of kropblting things i dont know confronting things i dont know and learning not to be ashamed of it i didnt know what semester was because i went in school in the middle of a second semester and imagined i could Start College in march and i remember that moment when he told me to go to Community College and that i could enroll in the summer time. Because they have summer classes and the university of maryland didnt. At least not for incoming students. From that point on, from first meeting with the advisor at prince georges Community College right outside of washington, d. C. , and becoming a fulltime student there, my journey, my life has been through education and through books. My first real job that i earned on my own was at a book store. Second job, i came home, i worked at a paint store first and then a month and a half later i quit that job to work at a book store and took a 3 dz pay cut 3 pay cut. Might have been the best decision of my life, deciding to work for basically daily minimum wage and i met so many people, including my wife, at that book store. So it was probably the best decision ive ever made. And, but, yeah, my journey since release has been through books and education. And law school, correct . Reginald yeah. Law school. I went to yale law school. Im an attorney. Its a set of skills, it allows me, actually, ive been working to get friends of mine out of prison. Representing people on parole. Representing people on clem ensy. I think the story of my life has been one of regret and one of desire and mercy. And i think we talk about criminal Justice Reform and we dont enough talk about what it means to be a merciful society. One of the foremost clemsy attorneys in the country gave me a coin from some roman and the word on it is mercy. He asked me something like, what would it mean, if this coin was the equivalent of a penny in the united states, and he said, what would it mean if we lived in a country where the most populous currency, the thing that you can find anywhere, reminded you of the need for mercy . And so i like to think that my legal work and also the work of freedom reads is about trying to center mercy and trying to center forgiveness. So regional Reginald Dwayne betts, if people are interested in contributing to freedom reads, is there a website they can go to make contributions . Reginald yes. We have a 501c3. So everything is tax deductible. Our website is freedomreads. Org. You can go to the website and learn more about our work. You can download our recent news letters. It takes about the libraries that weve installed in prisons across the country. The first two libraries we installed were in thing an gola correctional angola correctional center, Louisiana State correctional center, and norfolk, where malcolm x served his time. We replaced fixtures with a library. Its been a beautiful journey. And i think that people would be encouraged to contribute and support it. Reginald dwayne betts is the founder of freedom reads. We appreciate your time on book tv and about book. Reginald it is my pleasure. Thank you for having me. And this is about books. A Podcasting Program which looks at the business of publishing. New books are generally released on tuesdays and here are some that came out recently. In his latest book, the return, longtime political consultant dick morris, says that President Trump will run and win in 2024. And the disney revolt. An author chronicles the 1941 labor strike that pitted antiunion wa lt disney against some of his most talented animaters and led to a studio shutdown for weeks. One program on book tv is in depth. Its our Monthly Program which is a deep dive with one author and his or her body of work. Our most recent guest was author, talk hoe shoeft lar host, larry elder. He joined book tv to take calls about political correctness, the left and racial politics in the united states. Heres some of what he had to say. Wanted to know what drives me to do what i do. And the answer is, i think this is an amazing country. We hit the lottery when we were born on american soil. You were doubly blessed if you were raised by two parents who worked together to try to get the right kind of values into my brothers and me. I want people not to be misled by the direction of so many of our socalled leaders. That youre owed something, that health care is a right, thats not true, that a 15 minimum wage is helpful, thats not true. That institutional racism plagues america, thats not true. That voter i. D. Is some sort of con game to suppress the vote, which our former a. G. Once said. My goal is to get people to realize their godgiven potential. You cant do that if youre sitting around playing the victim. And as with all book tv programs, you can watch this interview in its entirety at our website, booktv. Org. Thanks for joining us for about books. This is a Podcasting Program produced by cspans book tv. You can listen to it and the entire library of cspan podcasts on the cspan now app or wherever you get your podcasts