Pork chops were in and karate chops were out when it came to books inmates most often pulled from the shelves of Canberra's jail library.
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From prison memoirs to Harry Potter, motivational books to spoken word poems, librarians have divulged the most popular items with inmates who desired an allowed form of escape at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in 2016.
Among this year's top reads were George R. R. Martin's bloody, violent Game of Thrones books, the inspiration for the hugely popular television series set in medieval times, and the fantasy novels that made up The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist.
British author Lee Child's Jack Reacher thriller series, which followed an ex-army officer investigating crimes in the United States, and the Australian writer Robert G. Barrett's stories about likeable larrakin Les Norton, were also hits.
Bookworms commonly borrowed Charlaine Harris' vampire-filled Sookie Stackhouse series, which became the True Blood television show, and the young adult Mortal Instruments novels by Cassandra Clare.
The secretive affairs of counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp, detailed in Vince Flynn's fictitious series, and Melbourne journalist John Silvester's true crime Underbelly series, also made the most-read list.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the fresh tale from J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, quickly became popular, alongside the perennial favourite yearly editions of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
This year also saw the prison's librarian introduce one of Canberra's most beloved and popular social institutions - the book club - to inmates for the first time.
Prisoners who joined the club chewed the fat over Bryce Courtenay's bestseller The Power of One, which tells the story of a South African boy who goes on to become a boxing champion.
Book club members also chatted about the spoken word poem To This Day, penned by Canadian writer Shane Koyczan, which became an internet sensation after it attracted more than 18 million views on YouTube.
The poem describes the Koyczan's experience of how he was bullied at school, where he was given the nickname 'Pork chop', and the enduring impact bullying had on victims throughout their lives.
While no book was strictly banned for prisoners in the jail, a Corrections ACT spokeswoman said books on true crime and martial arts had to be vetted.
The prison librarian said bookworms at the Hume jail enjoyed a wide range of literary genres, from fantasy and crime fiction to thrillers and adventure novels.
When it came to non-fiction they gravitated towards self-help and motivational literature, volumes on history and art, and how-to-draw books.
The prison's collection of about 5000 volumes spanned a broad range of reading material, similar in scope to a public library, and included religious books, biographies, prison memoirs, sporting literature, poetry, dictionaries and grammar books.
More than 400 men and women inside the jail had not been immune from the adult colouring craze, with prisoners supplied with colouring sheets, crosswords, word searches and Sudoku.
The books of Raymond E. Feist, George R. R. Martin and Lee Child also featured among favoured literary choices for Canberra's jail inmates in 2014, when prison memoirs had also been in high demand.
Last year, inmates couldn't wait to get their hands biographies and autobiographies, particularly of sports legends such as boxer Muhammed Ali, and stories of Australian history such as Gallipoli Diaries, about the Anzacs, by Jonathan King.
