Why did Hinton decide to start a book club?

Hinton got much pleasure and relief from using his imagination to take himself away from the prison. He wanted to show the other guys on death row that they could leave too. Hinton remembered being in school and getting so lost in a book about California that he felt he could smell the salt water of the Pacific Ocean. He felt that if he could get the guys on death row books, they could all leave the prison by reading.