Former Soviet Air Force officer and Nicolas Cage character Viktor Bout was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for arms trafficking, which gives him even more time to catch up on his reading. A "former associate" of Bout's, Andrew Smulian, who turned him in to the DEA spoke with the Post, and has read over 400 books during his two years in solitary confinement, submitting the list to persuade the court to credit him for time served. The list includes Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov, so presumably he was trying to change his personality from a Dmitri to an Ivan*.
Other works included the Bible, the Koran, the teachings of the Dalai Lama, and a book on "stress management." Smulian also studied Latin and Hebrew, and is about to embark on Greek. No word on whether he's tackled The Bet.
*Your editor regrets this Brothers Karamazov joke. He didn't mean to be such a Svidrigaïlov.
