B4B-001
Oduduwa: The First King
Ifá Doorways
The Ancient Yoruba Ancestor of All Living Things — The Father of Civilization and the Founder of Ile-Ife
Ebook $9.99 · Paperback $29.99
Buy NowRead it. Share it. Make it count.Books4Books, a publishing house
One Book Can Do More Than Be Read.
Books4Books publishes books with a purpose. A portion of book-sale proceeds supports our prison commissary initiative, turning a simple purchase into meaningful support.
- Published in-house
- 30% of book-sale proceeds allocated
- Secure checkout
Books We Publish
Every title on this site is published by Books4Books | edited, designed and printed in-house.
30% of Book-Sale Proceeds
The press allocates 30% of book-sale proceeds to the commissary initiative.
Prison Commissary Support
Those funds go toward commissary support for incarcerated people, initially in U.S. prisons.
Your purchase has a purpose
We publish the book. Your purchase does the rest.
Books4Books is a publishing house, not a reseller. Because we produce and sell our own titles, we can state plainly where the money goes: 30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to our prison commissary initiative, initially focused on U.S. prisons.
01
Publish
We publish our own books, carefully edited, properly produced and kept in print.
02
Sell directly
Books are sold direct to readers, so proceeds stay with the press rather than a chain of intermediaries.
03
Allocate
30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to prison commissary support.
The need
How many people are behind bars, and what they go without.
Soap, food, writing paper, stamps, sanitary pads. Inside, these are commissary purchases, and a commissary account with nothing on it buys nothing. The figures below are drawn from named public sources, not from us.
1,254,200
people in U.S. state or federal prisons
At yearend 2023, correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1,254,200 people in state or federal prisons, a 2% rise on the year before.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2023 (NCJ 310197, Sept 2025)5,530,300
people under adult correctional supervision
Counting prison, jail, probation and parole, an estimated 5,530,300 adults were under correctional supervision in the United States at yearend 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Correctional Populations in the United States, 2023 (NCJ 310413)Food
nutrition inside is a documented problem
Peer-reviewed nutritional assessments of prison and jail meals and commissary offerings have repeatedly found provision falling short of dietary guidelines, leaving people to buy food from the commissary to make up the gap.
Source: Journal of Correctional Health Care (2025); BMC Nutrition (2022); Center for Science in the Public Interest, Private Food, Public HarmDignity
menstrual products are not guaranteed everywhere
A federal audit found that while most Bureau of Prisons institutions make menstrual products accessible, some do not fully follow policy, and non-specific detention standards limit oversight elsewhere. Research on carceral period poverty describes women buying pads and tampons out of commissary funds they may not have.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-26-107694; Anjum & Moss, Priced Out of DignityBooks4Books does not publish estimates of its own. Every figure above is attributable to the source named beside it; we link them so you can check.
How it works
- 01
Buy a book
Choose an ebook or a printed edition.
- 02
Book-sale proceeds
Your payment becomes proceeds from a book sale.
- 03
30% allocated
30% of those proceeds is allocated to the commissary initiative.
- 04
Commissary support
Allocated funds go toward commissary support for incarcerated people, initially in U.S. prisons.
The library
Books worth keeping.
Read it. Share it. Make it count., 30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to the prison commissary initiative.
Why this matters
Commissary is where everyday needs are met.
Commissary is the store inside a prison. It is where people buy the ordinary things a facility does not supply in sufficient quantity, soap, toothpaste, writing paper, stamps, food items.
Without money on account, those items are simply out of reach. Support on a commissary account is practical and undramatic: it covers everyday needs and lets people stay in contact with family.
We describe this work plainly and without spectacle. No one's circumstances are used as marketing, and nothing is claimed here that the press cannot stand behind.
About Commissary Grants →Your purchase goes further
From your shelf to somewhere it is needed.
- 01
You choose a book
A title you actually want to read | ebook or paperback.
- 02
You read it
Instant download, or a printed edition for the shelf.
- 03
Proceeds are allocated
30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to the prison commissary initiative.
- 04
Support reaches a commissary
Money on a commissary account covers everyday essentials a facility does not supply in sufficient quantity.
Stories behind the mission
Verified stories will be published here.
We will not publish a recipient story we have not received, verified and been given permission to share. When those stories exist, they will appear in this section, in the recipient's own words, with dignity and without identifying anyone who has not consented.
Transparency
Know where your purchase goes.
What is allocated
30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to the prison commissary initiative.
What funds the press
The remainder covers editing, design, typesetting, printing, shipping, digital delivery, payment processing and the day-to-day running of the press.
How support is delivered
Support is delivered as commissary funds for incarcerated people, beginning with U.S. facilities.
Reporting
Allocation figures are published on this site once they are verified. We would rather report late than report loosely.
Books4Books is a publishing house. It does not claim charitable or nonprofit registration on this site. The 30% allocation of book-sale proceeds to the prison commissary initiative is stated by Books4Books; verified allocation figures and reporting will be published here as they become available.
Full transparency page →Impact dashboard
Reported, not estimated.
Impact data coming soon
We publish figures only once they are verified. Books sold, proceeds allocated and commissary support delivered will be reported here.
- Books sold
- Proceeds allocated
- Commissary accounts supported
- Facilities reached
Start your library
Build a shelf, not a purchase.
Four ways into the catalogue of 8 titles, chosen by where you are in your reading, not by price.
Why we exist
Knowledge should not disappear.
Books4Books is a publishing house. We commission, edit, typeset and print our own titles, and we sell them directly to readers as ebooks and paperbacks.
The press allocates 30% of book-sale proceeds to our prison commissary initiative, initially focused on U.S. prisons. Commissary funds allow incarcerated people to purchase everyday items from their facility's store.
The programme begins with U.S. facilities and grows only as far as the press can fund and administer it properly. Details of how support is administered are published here as each stage of the programme is put in place.
Discover our mission →Choose your path
Where would you like to begin?
Reader favourites
Where readers are beginning.
The voice behind the library
Ajarn Shaman Shu
I write from inside three houses. I hold transmission as a Vajra Master in the Tibetan tradition, where I was trained in the long preliminaries before anything was called empowerment. I was later ordained Ajarn in the Chok Lap Thai forest tradition, and the precepts of that house govern how I do protective and prosperity work. In the Osayinbola lineage I was crowned Oluwo of Ifá, and the odu have shaped how I read every other tradition since. These books are not comparative religion. They are working notes: what was given to me, what I tested, what held, and what I would tell a student sitting across the table.
From our readers
What comes back from the library.
Verified reader reviews appear here as they are submitted and approved. We do not publish reviews we have not received.
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