NEW YORK — The defense table might seem like an odd place to get some pleasure reading done, but Sean "Puffy" Combs and his rap protege and co-defendant Jamal "Shyne" Barrow tote books to court every day.

The volumes, along with strawberry Lifesavers, Snapple bottles and hot-pink Post-It pads, litter the defense tables, out of sight of the jury box but in clear view of reporters taking down the rap mogul's every action.

So what does a defendant in the city's most high-profile trial read? Or, perhaps more accurately, what does he want to be seen reading?

Good books, apparently. Combs has kept a miniature volume of the New Testament in front of him since the first day of jury selection. During damaging testimony, such as when one gunshot victim tearfully described her injuries, the rap music king opened the tiny book and stared intently at the words.

Barrow, who occasionally makes the sign of the cross while in court, also has a bible close at hand. He keeps the illustrated edition, with a shiny white cover, propped open on his desk whether the witness is a ballistics expert discussing shell casings or a club patron recalling the gunfight.

"He's very religious," his lawyer Murray Richman explained early on in the trial. Richman perhaps forgot Barrow's debut-album rap boast, "leased my soul to the devil with the option to buy," or his philosophy laid out on the track "Spend Some Cheese," in which he recommends "live for the moment, f*** atonement, explain to God when you see him."

Barrow's lyrics would also seem to be at odds with another of his literary choices, Alan Dershowitz's The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Morality and Law. The 20-year-old paged through the Harvard professor and Court TV anchor's book for several days during jury selection.

Aside from the New Testament, Combs' tastes have been more secular. He brought King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero, by New Yorker editor David Remnick to court for a few days during the prosecution's case but didn't seem to make it past the first chapter. He followed that by leafing through a book of short stories.

Only co-defendant Anthony "Wolf" Jones, who unlike Barrow and Combs has done hard state prison time, comes to court without a book in hand. Asked why he wasn't reading, Jones said, "Oh, I'm reading. I'm reading the testimony."