When did you discover Bukowski?

A

angelamarie

first hear bukowski

I first heard about bukowski when I was 14 or 15. i used to sit in the back yard of my run-down house in these broken lawn chairs with my two favorite cousins listening to records while they smoked parliaments and discussed literature with me. I had just finished kerouac's subterraneans for the first time and thought myself wildly advanced for my age and asked to see what my older cousin was reading. He, instead of just handing it to me, started reading to me out of "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." I cant remember exactly what story it was but i loved it. Later in life (3 years later) I stumbled across copy in a book store when I had run away to San Diego and fell in love all over again. I've been obsessed ever since.
 
Yesika

Yesika

BEAST said:
i was told that i wrote like him...so i looked into it and realized that whoever thought that was a complete idiot

from then on though i've been a fan
Click to expand...

^ he told me he had been compared to him. lol.
so he sent me a few poems. i liked them but wasnt in love.

we read more bukowski - mostly things Beast had read
then on my birthday he sent me a copy of Post Office
and well, being that i work as a cashier in a parking lot
i hate my job, my boss and my customers and my father is a drunk

Hank was all too familiar to me. we had met before lol.

so i went on a reading rampage. (this site being part of it)
and luckily my best friend (Beast)
is a lover of him also. so we've bought a few of the same books at the same time.
discussed his work...ect.

i myself am a poet...and ive written various pieces were my alter ego
(The Filthy Girl Next Door [developed before i met The Dirty Old Man] writes Bukowski love letters. confessionals...ect)

anyway i am rambling.
so yes a dear friend gave me an even dearer love.
 
Onions

Onions

I read Burning in my late teens. Then watched Barfly. Then read Love is a dog, Then Post office, Women, Hollywood etc. I am about to read Factotum as it's one the few of his I haven't actually read along with Pulp.
Shocking!

I did hear that they were shite though so avoided them til now.
 
D

Dirk1971

I was living in a roominghouse in Brisbane. I was in the bookstore looking for a book by Burroughs when I came across Bukowski's Ham and Rye. I read a bit of Rodey Doyles intro and remembering the movie Barfly, bought it.

I sat in the park reading it. I read it in day or two. Then went out and bought the rest of the stuff I could find.
 
A

adrian

First time I heard of Bukowski must have been in '87 when Barfly came out. I read somewhere that it was based on an actual person and this got me more interested in him. The thought of a drinking fighting burping farting poet / writer is a bit at odds with my possibly cliche'd ideas of these people
 
A

allnitewatchman

I kept seeing his name pop up in various magazines and newspapers. I think the first books I bought by him were South Of No North and Burning In Water. I would read all his prose from cover to cover and only browse through his poetry. It was years before I sat down and read all of his published poetry books. It was worth the effort though. Buk is one of the most underappreciated "great" poets of English Lit.
 
L

luvv2rock

my first was Women, which I loaned to my high school english teacher which she left on her desk and of corse the school burnt down. Its been several years, I should really buy another copy...
 
chronic

chronic

old and in the way
When you say "of course the school burned down" do you mean that this is what always happens when a high school teacher leaves a Bukowski book on their desk?

Cool...
 
G

Garret

I discovered Bukowski a few years back when I first started writing poetry--and as *most* beginning poets, it rhymed. Apparently, to the users of the Livejournal poetry communities (where I posted them), they claimed that I had a fucked up meter and, in suggesting a poet to emulate, suggested Bukowski. To be honest, I looked him up and wasn't that much impressed.

Jump two-three years later. I'm on a one of those college trips that high schools allow you. I went to Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City (Michigan, that is, since I live in Michigan). I stopped over to Petoskey on the way back and went into Horizons book store. I was looking through the stacks and noticed a blue book called "Post Office". I remembered looking up Buk awhile back and thought "shit, my as well." and bought it.

Been a fan ever since and consider him a major influence on my writing (prose and poetry).
 
S

sethloco420

I discovered Bukowski during a time I bummed around the city of Albuquerque. I had just dropped out my senior year in November and during the day I needed a place to go. I took the bus, skated, and walked every day to a little bookstore called Birdsong. I discovered Bukowski during a time when I needed someone most. I grew up with no father and a mother that demanded money from ME for all the LOVELY years she took care of me. And now... I can't put him down. Love is a dog from Hell helped me get though the day and continues helping me get though the night.

A nice evening in Albuquerque with a joint in my hand reciting lines of Bukowski is all that I can ask for.
 
T

TheSlowPlay

I used to wander through bookstores hoping for something to catch my eye. Post Office and Women were the first. And I liked his name. Thought i'll give them a try, and from there too off. I was in eigth grade and felt like I was the only person who knew him then for finding him on my own. And not to sound like a bastard, I still take pride in that to this day.
 
F

Fakename

I guess it was a girlfriend of mine 12 years ago who rented Barfly for us one night. I'm not sure if she was into it because of Buk or because she was in recovery. But, I didn't start reading his books until a few years later.
 
N

nomadi00

Unglamorous as it may sound, I first heard of Bukowski in that Paul Giamatti movie Sideways. Even though he (Bukowski) didn't write the line, I didn't know that then, and thought whoever did might be worth a read:

"I'm a thumb print on the window of a skyscraper. I'm a smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage."
 
ChinasBuk

ChinasBuk

"Contes de la folie ordinaire", puis "Nouveaux contres de la folie ordinaire", puis "Je t'aime Albert" etc, etc... All books in french version.
 
Milla

Milla

I think the first thing I read of Bukowski was in Italian, a translation of Bring me your love when I was still living in my village in Italy.
I borrowed it from my local library, and when I did so, the librarian called my father to let him know I was reading 'inappropriate books' for my age (I must have been 13 or 14 when I got it out on loan). And what did my father do? He told the librarian to fuck off. My father was a hero!
 
bospress.net

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
Milla said:
I borrowed it from my local library, and when I did so, the librarian called my father to let him know I was reading 'inappropriate books' for my age (I must have been 13 or 14 when I got it out on loan). And what did my father do? He told the librarian to fuck off. My father was a hero!
Click to expand...


If only more people had open minds like your Father. He should make us all proud.

Bill
 
Black Swan

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!
Milla said:
I think the first thing I read of Bukowski was in Italian, a translation of Bring me your love when I was still living in my village in Italy.
I borrowed it from my local library, and when I did so, the librarian called my father to let him know I was reading 'inappropriate books' for my age (I must have been 13 or 14 when I got it out on loan). And what did my father do? He told the librarian to fuck off. My father was a hero!
Click to expand...


More power to you
 
bluebottle

bluebottle

Founding member
i first heard buk's voice on a homemade cassette back in '85 when i was 17 or so, laughed out loud with the pal, jeff, who turned me onto it. on the other side of the tape was stuff like flipper, flux of pink indians, public image and talking heads. good stuff. buk's name always stuck with me, and one day in glacier park, mt, in the early '90's i noticed a new friend - hi kevin wherever you are - had "the days run away...", "hot water music", and "play the piano...." on his shelf. i said, oh, i know this guy! he was surprised as hell that some half breed indin stuck in montana would know this guy, and we became fast friends over buk. been reading him off and on ever since.
 
J

jimtoo

In the late 80s I was working in a professional office. A newly hired guy liked to read Bukowski at his desk. He often wore headphones and sang out loud with the music no one else could hear, which often included vulgar language. I sat in a cube next to him and thought, wow, he won't last. Sure enough, he got fired quickly, but his comments about bukowski got me to check him out. I never wore headphones or sang vulgar lyrics for all to hear, but I eventually got fired, too, for my "bad attitude" towards an uptight middle manager, who had told us we were no longer allowed to socialize on the job unless we stayed late to make up for it. So I made a point of coming in late, taking long lunches, leaving early, and standing next to the manager's office to talk to friends. hmm, you don't think reading bukowski had anything to do with it???

btw, I'm new, just happened to stumble across this site today.
 
ROC

ROC

It is what it is
Ha! :)
Welcome jimtoo.
Sounds like any number of assholes I've worked for.
Keep up the bad work.
 
P

postino

Erections, ejaculations, and tales of ordinary madness. I was 16 and I pulled it off my father's bookshelf along with the Artaud. Citylights effected my development greatly. When I opened it up, there was a page ripped from a porno mag with two naked women with their hands down a man's pants, and on the back was a Bukowski poem. I read the whole book.
 
P

postino

hey, thanks, I was thinking of changing it, but I guess it stays for now.
 
P

Paulland

My dad has always liked Bukowski I guess. When I was a kid I used to take Notes of a Dirty Old Man and try to read it. It was scary and intriguing. For some reason I thought that I shouldn't be reading his books, because they were so dirty, almost like porn, but when my dad found out that his boy was taking his Bukowski books he was more pleased than anything.

Now I read more Bukowski than he does, I suppose that phase of his life is done. Still, I'll share a good poem with him and he will only ever laugh and say "He is so fucking right."

Good 'ole Notes of a Dirty Old Man, the old decaying copy of it still freaks me out/makes me nostalgic.

Paul
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Welcome to the forum, jimtoo! You sure know how to deal with uptight middle managers...:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top