In what order did you read Bukowski's novels?

christopher

christopher

I'm currently on my first piece of Buk's work, Women
ir
.
I'm not expecting you to name 30 or 40 pieces, but, interested to see the order of the first 5 of 10 (or however many you want to name, really. If you want to list me everything you've ever read of his in order, that's fine).
After Women
ir
, I'll probably read Bring Me Your Love
ir
as its in the mail.
After that, Post Office
ir
is on the way.
I think my next purchase is a three way tie between Ham On Rye
ir
, South of No North
ir
, The Most Beautiful Woman In Town
ir
.

I think the order in which you get into an author is an interesting concept as you may read a book by an author, hate it and never bother with that author again, when you make actually like his or her works as a whole.
I found this was the case with Chuck Palahniuk. I read Invisible Monsters first and thought "woah, this is way too crazy" but then I read Choke and LOVED it. After reading most of Palahniuk's books, I went back and re-read Invisible Monster and its now probably my third favorite book of his.
 
Hugh Rodenski

Hugh Rodenski

i read them in order of when he wrote them so. i did that so i could see how his writing developed and changed as he aged. post office, factotum,women, ham on rye ect...
 
james

james

i always wanted to have someone new to bukowski read the novels in chronological order:
ham on rye
factotum
post office
women
hollywood
then maybe "the captain is out to lunch"...
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
I reread them that way, but I can't remember the order I originally did. although Burning in Water... was first.
 
james

james

well, i meant chronological order, as in his life...
ham on rye covers from his first memory to age 21 (1941). factotum covers his wandering of the country during the 40s, post office covers, well, his time with the post office during the 50s and 60s;
women covers the 70s, and hollywood covers the 80s. i left off pulp since it's not autobiographical, but the captain is out to lunch would be an excellent way to wrap it all up in my opinion...
 
christopher

christopher

AH!
That is all awesome.
I was unaware of any of that.
That makes the concept even more interesting.

Also, just ordered Hot Water Music from Amazon.
The deal was too good to pass up.
 
roni

roni

I'd strongly recommend to WAIT with 'Ham On Rye' till you're a little more into Bukowski!

For several reasons:
- 'Ham' is one of his best works and sure one of the greatest novels in all literature. So, in order to have a climax, you should wait a little. (Which does Not mean, you need to read Everything else first. Just a few more.)
- it tells you a lot about HOW he became, who he became and WHY. Reading it first (or too soon) will kill this A-ha!-effect for you.
- The effect of 'Ham On Rye' is best, if you know some more prose before. Esp. the short-stories, since they are very unequal in quality due to the fact, that many of them were written just for money. But having read some of these 'image-making-up'-stories first and then going about 'Ham' is - ENLIGHTENING! You'll be able to read all the stories again - and see them in another light.
 
S

Stavrogin

Yeah, I should be ashamed of myself. These kind of things are highly subjective but below pretty well sums up my own personal take on Pulp:

seinfeld.gif
 
BrunoAndernacht

BrunoAndernacht

1 . Ham on Rye (I may have missed that "A-ha Effect", but as I said in my first post, I read it at the age of eight, therefore how could I know that, I just started reading and found out my interest went higher as I kept on doing so).
2 . Factotum
3 . Post Office
4 . Women
5 . Septuagenary Stew
6 . Pulp
7 . Hollywood
 
zenguru

zenguru

I started with Factotum. Followed up with Women. Then Most Beautiful Woman in Town. My next one is Post Office.
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

I had a friend at school who was into Bukowski and he loaned some to me. I think the order was: Factotum, Post then Women (in the early 90s they were the only novels widely available in the UK). Later I read Ham on Rye then Hollywood and, lastly, Pulp.
 
Josh Rock

Josh Rock

Read Post Office first!!! Then Women 2nd. Love is a Dog from Hell 3rd! Mockingbird With Me Luck 4th! Then read South of No North and Hollywood at the same time! Get Pleasures of the Damned and flip it to any page and whatever page you land on READ! do this 5-6 times a day, it will help lower your cholesterol too! After you have done this, get the movie BARFLY and Factotum and watch them the same day! Then get some of his live poetry readings on dvd. after that read half of Hot Water Music and inter change it with Notes of a Dirty Old Man... then start reading Post Office and Women all over again, then go out and get Early Roaminghouse Madrigals and come back here, tell me how it is and then we will go from there...
oh Shit and get the Most Beautiful Woman in Town and read parts of that in between reading everything else.

don't listen to a thing these people try to tell you about Bukowski cause they don't know a God Damn thing, but they all think they do...

Just kidding! just don't ask them to read your work or even tell them the slightest thing about your day or how you are doing or they will think that you are just here for weird Attn seeking reasons. haaa

welcome! and good luck dealing with all the Bukowski Opera Snobs!

and whatever you do DO NOT READ "HAM ON RYE" until you have read all those others first cause it will make you depressed how Buk gets shit on by his father and the kids at school... but it is a good read! a really good read! it'll just make you feel sorry for him though and you don't need to get into all that sappy shit at first. some could argue to read this book first because it is all about his childhood.
 
james

james

definitely read HAM ON RYE first. then the newest people magazine, and look for blurbs about josh rock.....
and eat a goo goo cluster whilst doin' so...
 
the only good poet

the only good poet

One retreat after another without peace.
i was looking for the poetry and found Women. then i happened upon The last night of the earth poems. i don't remember much after that.
except for a work van and an underground car park. but that's another story.
 
Erica C.

Erica C.

Crazy as it is, I read Pulp first when I barely knew who Bukowski was (read the story of my discovery of Bukowski in my first blog entry at http://ericacameron75.blogspot.com/). I think it is important to read Ham on Rye close to the beginning, as it is his bildungsroman , telling his life from his own mouth. Best to read it from the horse's mouth, I say.

Women and Love is a Dog from Hell are sort of companion pieces that can be read at the same time.
 
Z

Zoroaster

christopher said:
I'm currently on my first piece of Buk's work, Women.
I'm not expecting you to name 30 or 40 pieces, but, interested to see the order of the first 5 of 10 (or however many you want to name, really. If you want to list me everything you've ever read of his in order, that's fine).
Click to expand...
Women
Post Office
Tales Of A Dirty Old Man
Then All The Rest...

There is something extra special about Post Office for my mind...
 
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