Perth Prison inmates are turning to hypnotist Paul McKenna to help them stub out the cigarettes ahead of a shake-up of smoke-free facilities across Scottish jails.
TV host McKenna’s self-help guide Quit Smoking Today has emerged as one of the most borrowed books from HMP Perth’s extensive library.
The best-seller has become a hit with inmates as the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) prepares to set out its plans for no smoking zones across its estate.
Another self-help title which is doing well at Perth, is Marin Scwichtenberg’s Yoga For Beginners.
The list of prisoner’s literary favourites was revealed by SPS following a Freedom Of Information request.
The most borrowed fiction book is Jack Reacher thriller The Hard Way by Lee Child, followed by crime drama The Quickie by James Patterson and Bitten, a fantasy horror about a female werewolf by Kelley Armstrong.
Fight Club, Fatherland and Exit Wound by Chris Ryan also fare well in the fiction chart.
However, one of last year’s favourites Harry Hill’s Whopping Great Joke Book, has dropped to number six in the non-fiction top 10, beaten by The Oxford Dictionary and the DSA’s Official Theory Test for Car Drivers.
The real-life crime epic Corner by The Wire creator David Simon has also made the list.
The most popular audiobooks borrowed at Perth are Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler, Clydesiders at War by Margaret Davis and Quintin Jardine’s A Coffin For Two.
HMP Perth’s library boasts about 6,000 titles, although unlike other prisons there are no DVDs for inmates to borrow.
Castle Huntly at Longforgan does not have a library, apart from a selection of donated books which is organised by a prisoner on a part-time business.
The SPS said it was reviewing the possibility of upgrading its Castle Huntly collection at a later date.
The service said it aims to have plans in place soon on how indoor smoke-free prison facilities would be delivered.
Smoking will be banned in all prisons across Wales and four in south-west England from next year, the UK Government announced in September.
It will be a phased roll-out scheme that will eventually see all jails in England and Wales go smoke-free.