First one I read was Post Office which I roared through. I'd never read anything like it before. Immediately followed it with Factotum, South of No North, Ham on Rye, Women etc. etc. Somewhere in there I also started on the poetry and I've never looked back. I even got into John Fante via a reference in one of Bukowski's books (although I can't remember which one at the moment). I can honestly say that I've read Ham on Rye and Women both about twelve times a piece. They both resonate with so much vigor that I always find something new.
When did you discover Bukowski?
- Thread starter mjp
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Melissa Sue
Founding member
I grabbed Pulp, and my boyfriend found me on page 2 and was like "no no no no dont read that, read *this*" and handed me Ham on Rye. And then I read everything. Except, now looking at the bookcase, Pulp. WTF?
Ed, the boyf who set me on buk, actually doesnt like the poetry but I eat all of it with relish. and horseradish.
For dinner I had chicken stew, lovingly provided by my parents as I painted a mural in their house. Thanks for asking. Yes I read that silly banner. Freak.
Ed, the boyf who set me on buk, actually doesnt like the poetry but I eat all of it with relish. and horseradish.
For dinner I had chicken stew, lovingly provided by my parents as I painted a mural in their house. Thanks for asking. Yes I read that silly banner. Freak.
Melissa Sue
Founding member
mjp said:
Yes! but most likely on a smaller scale than most. Budget and shopping habits come into play most often. I hate *looking* for books, i like when they find me. So I guess you could say I've bought every Buk book that I've had the fortune to stumble accross. Which is really quite a few ~ I'm always poking around used bookstores.
Melissa Sue
Founding member
mjp said:
Yar! The deadly forum-lurking pirate!
Melissa Sue
Founding member
HenryChinaski said:
OMG I just snorted coffee. That's hillarious. And *so* true.
I'm probably close in line after our 16-year-old, I'm 24.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
you're older than me. I think I'm one of the youngest posters on this forum. I'm only 20
G
gonesean
every day ithink ill see something new, knuckleheads, ill just go to sleep for a weekor two. bye.
Yeaaah, I'm bad ass alright...
G
gonesean
im just gonna go ahead and have a baby. We'll make him 15teen. Just so we,ll have something to talk bout k. And he,s a pirate also, so don,t even think some twenty year olds got the edge, k. luvkisses.
G
gonesean
no!
Full Collapse said:
Melissa Sue
Founding member
LOL ~ sean's quote is very appropriate.
G
gonesean
Thanks darling! Is that a real bird? Are you really blind in that one eye? Whats his name? Got you any luck at the track?
Melissa Sue
Founding member
Ha Ha ~ no darling but close. it's just a snapshot of what happens while drunk in disneyworld. children were corupted. people were shocked. pirate costumes were purchased. but not necissarily in that order.
Kiddo Diagnol
Founding member
mjp said:
Im 15...
Ham on Rye. I had tried reading Factotum first but I was uninterested in it (at the time). My friend told me I should either read Hot Water Music or Ham on Rye first. I went to the bookstore and didn't see Hot Water Music, but Ham on Rye was there. So, like other books, I read it all in the bookstore because I never had enough money for a $20 book.
I hate to sound like I read the book years ago, because I didn't, but when I read it I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was real, no bullshit. It was my favorite book for a while... until I read Post Office.
Melvin O said:
I didn't remember this one, but i guess you mean:
Song:
Mellowship Sunky in B
Album:
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Verse:
Being that I'm the duke of my domain
My hat goes off to Mark Twain
Singing a song about what true men don't do
Killing another creature that's kind of blue
Writing about the world of the wild coyote
Goodman Truman Capote
Talking about my thoughts 'cause they must grow
Cock my brain to shoot my load
I'm on my porch 'cause I lost my house key
Pick up my book I read Bukowski
Can I get another kiss from you
Kiss me right here on my tattoo
Those rock dudes love ol' Bukowski don't they.
:cool:
I think my first book from Bukowski, after I'd printed some of his poems off the internet, was 'The Captain Is Out To Lunch And The Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship'. I love autobiographical works and diaries so, it was a thrill for me to read about his daily life. After that, a lot more books ensued.
with a five day beard trippin my feet up, an a whiskey moss growin over the eyelids, pinnin them back like the glare a some cross-eyed whore. strugglin wi the guts to keep the vomit out my gob. barnardos second hand book store was the only shop with no heatin system, and here i was feeling less like a toasted tuna sandwhich in a bus driver's back pocket.
i laid eyes 'pon this here name sounding vaguely foreign, BUKOWSKI. shit, i shelled out ?4 for a buncha shit balzac last week in the same state, this can't be any worse.
Dangling in the Tournefortia. tourne, tourne, tourne, i'm feelin ill now, an the acid gathers at the back of the gullet, but i've heard if'n y'can smile, it supresses the GAG REFLEX. i'm smiling.
open that son of a bitch up lest i poke yr eyes out with hot fuck son. page 87.
read on.
sway on.
smile on.
then I turn on the tv to the
morning soap operas
and I am glad that I don't live
with any of those women
they are always getting pregnant and are
always unhappy
with their doctors and lawyers.
I snap the set off
consider masturbating
reject that and
take a bath instead.
the phone rings, it's my
girlfriend: "what are you
doing?"
"nothing."
"what do you mean, 'nothing'?"
"I'm in bed."
"in bed? it's almost noon."
"I know."
"why don't you take a walk?"
"all right."
*
I get up, get dressed and go outside.
I walk south on Western
I walk all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard
go into Sears Roebuck.
there's a blue jean sale on.
I purchase a pair for under $10.
I take the escalator down
and in the candy section
I buy a large bag of popcorn.
then I stroll through the hardware section
looking at tools that I have no interest in,
then to the electrical section
where I stand looking at a series of
sun lamps,
jamming the popcorn into my mouth
and feeling like a total
asshole.
-----------------------
i cough up the ?1.50 for this, because the guy makes sense to me right now.
the green charity shop bag stinks a moth balls, an the book reeks a damp, i step out in to the coleraine street, 3.30pm saturday, a pram rolls past with some water-headed idiot child on board, wavin some piece of shit dog toy out it's yap an i vomit over the pavement an the outside of the green charity bag. i wipe the chunks a chicken an rice out of the beard an slosh the bag round a puddle for a few seconds, buy a bottle of Tesco's own brand scotch ?3.49, walk home. read the rest of the book an phone my ex-girlfriend at four am.
i laid eyes 'pon this here name sounding vaguely foreign, BUKOWSKI. shit, i shelled out ?4 for a buncha shit balzac last week in the same state, this can't be any worse.
Dangling in the Tournefortia. tourne, tourne, tourne, i'm feelin ill now, an the acid gathers at the back of the gullet, but i've heard if'n y'can smile, it supresses the GAG REFLEX. i'm smiling.
open that son of a bitch up lest i poke yr eyes out with hot fuck son. page 87.
read on.
sway on.
smile on.
then I turn on the tv to the
morning soap operas
and I am glad that I don't live
with any of those women
they are always getting pregnant and are
always unhappy
with their doctors and lawyers.
I snap the set off
consider masturbating
reject that and
take a bath instead.
the phone rings, it's my
girlfriend: "what are you
doing?"
"nothing."
"what do you mean, 'nothing'?"
"I'm in bed."
"in bed? it's almost noon."
"I know."
"why don't you take a walk?"
"all right."
*
I get up, get dressed and go outside.
I walk south on Western
I walk all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard
go into Sears Roebuck.
there's a blue jean sale on.
I purchase a pair for under $10.
I take the escalator down
and in the candy section
I buy a large bag of popcorn.
then I stroll through the hardware section
looking at tools that I have no interest in,
then to the electrical section
where I stand looking at a series of
sun lamps,
jamming the popcorn into my mouth
and feeling like a total
asshole.
-----------------------
i cough up the ?1.50 for this, because the guy makes sense to me right now.
the green charity shop bag stinks a moth balls, an the book reeks a damp, i step out in to the coleraine street, 3.30pm saturday, a pram rolls past with some water-headed idiot child on board, wavin some piece of shit dog toy out it's yap an i vomit over the pavement an the outside of the green charity bag. i wipe the chunks a chicken an rice out of the beard an slosh the bag round a puddle for a few seconds, buy a bottle of Tesco's own brand scotch ?3.49, walk home. read the rest of the book an phone my ex-girlfriend at four am.
My first was Post Office, which was given to me by a dear friend. "You'll like this guy, he's an asshole." I did, and he was. After that, I read 'em all.
Some guy I don't know and never will sent me one of Bukowski's poems via the internet. Just one humble little poem. Well, I loved some lines, they caught me and I went out and bought...What matters most is how well you walk through the fire!
I prefer his Prose-Poetry. His novels are good. But his poems sizzle with immediate creativity. O, rubbish! It's all worthwhile...
SINCERITY
may solves the troubles
of loving yet...
O the poem I read was: 'for Jane'
I prefer his Prose-Poetry. His novels are good. But his poems sizzle with immediate creativity. O, rubbish! It's all worthwhile...
SINCERITY
may solves the troubles
of loving yet...
O the poem I read was: 'for Jane'
number6horse
okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
mjp said:
Hell yes. I first read "Dangling In The Tournefortia" and then proceeded to re-asses my budget limits to allow for less savings and more Bukowski. No doubt about it - the first writer in a long time to hit marrow and draw stem-cells. Complete absorption. OK - I'll stop with the physical metaphors because I'm drunk, but let me assure you - Bukowski is the most purchased/borrowed of any author in my collection nowadays.
I'm, as you can see, from Norway. And in Norway there are precious few film directors. So when my man Bernt Hamer went and made the movie Factotum I ran to see it (I'm a huge movie geek). After I saw it, I thought, hm, this Chinaski fella sure seems like a cool guy. So I stupidly went into several bookstores asking for 'Any books by Henry Chinsaski'. I even spelled it out to them. It was not until some bookstore clerk went on the net for me and searched 'Henry Chinaski' and the words 'Henry Chinaski, a pseudonym used frequently by author Charles Bukowski' that I saw the light.
I asked the clerk if he had any books by Bukowski, and he told me he had three. 'Mockingbird Wish Me Luck', 'Ham on Rye' and 'Post Office'. I asked wich one was the first he had written, and he promptly said, 'Post Office'. I bought it, read it and now have fifteen books by the greatest American Author of all time in my collection.
I asked the clerk if he had any books by Bukowski, and he told me he had three. 'Mockingbird Wish Me Luck', 'Ham on Rye' and 'Post Office'. I asked wich one was the first he had written, and he promptly said, 'Post Office'. I bought it, read it and now have fifteen books by the greatest American Author of all time in my collection.
I first read Notes of a Dirty Old Man, while I was in college. Then I loaned the book to a friend. He refused to return the book, and I doubted that he was reading it. He became evasive about the book everytime I brought it up. I was becoming very concerned about the book. Finally, I had to break into his apartment through his window to get the book back. He had written phone numbers in it, and wrote on the title page that it was my biography.