L.A. has the largest jail system in the country.

You got people that been in jail just like one time and their life can't get nothing because of whatever mistake they made.

I stole some ground turkey because I wanted to feed my family. We was hungry.

Off the Block. Stories tracing the path from city block to cell block and back.

Find it now at kCRW.com or subscribe on iTunes.

Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannon Foundation.

Well. are provided in part by Lannin Foundation. Boots.

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good? No, Timberg.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt.

This is Bookworm, and today, I'm very happy to have with me someone who, in his new book,

is known as Mr. Baker. His name is Nicholson Baker. He's been our

friend on Bookworm many times, and he's written a book called Substitute, Going to School

with a thousand kids. He, after, I'd say, a minimal number of training sessions,

became a school substitute and wrote an extraordinarily detailed report day by day on 28 days of substitute teaching.

Now, why did you become a substitute teacher?

Thank you, Michael, for having me on the show.

I'm always glad to talk to you.

And I think what happened was I had ideas about

what should change in education, and I had theories and thoughts. I'd gone to an kind of alternative public

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