Bukowski

[P. Aaron]

Reading Factotum. Like all Bukowski books, it's dirt, sunshine through dusty blinds, stinks like an old bar, and the sex is scary.

Can't stop reading about boozing, drunken fights, vomit, and another cigarette.

All the stuff I don't have the guts to do myself, Bukowski does for me.

One peice of advice; don't loan out your Bukowski books. You'll never get them returned.

 

[blendermassacre]

that sounds like the best read ever.

 

[MIJ-VI]

So Mr. Bukowski was good at painting pictures with words?

 

[knumbskull]

“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose”

“Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.”

“Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.”

"what matters most is how well you walk through the fire"

"my beerdrunk soul is sadder than all the dead christmas trees of the world."

"I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now."

"dogs and angels are not
very far apart"

and so on.

 

[Eric Perry]

“Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.”

I'm a little offended.

 

[bassbrad]

Bukowski and Wm Burroughs are both wonderful writers, but I can only take them in small doses. My wife got really scared when she found that book shelf.

 

[knumbskull]

I'm a little offended.

couple of days drinking = job done

 

[knumbskull]

"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, “I’m not going to make it”, but you laugh inside remembering all the times you’ve felt that way."

i like this one

 

[P. Aaron]

So Mr. Bukowski was good at painting pictures with words?

It's not even that. It's the ease at which he is readable and yet almost utterly detestable. The scenes are almost always born of human depravity, and he writes in short, episodic bursts.

There's no grand plot. Nor are any of his books character connected. His stories are just a series of days, depressing, funny, and almost impossible to stop reading once you've begun.

 

[Etienned]

Reading Factotum.
One peice of advice; don't loan out your Bukowski books. You'll never get them returned.

so true,

I never returned my beer-stained copy of Pulp to my (ex-)friend .

 

[MakiSupaStar]

I've read a ton of Bukowski. He's one of my favorite authors/ poets/philosophers. He's a no bs look at the darker side of life we all occasionally embrace.

 

[Stanley Design]

I was given "women" as a parting gift from a breakup after dating a literature student from McGill. She said "read this, because, it is you.", so it sat on my shelf for nearly two years unopened other than women who would be dating me and ask about it. I would tell them "A women gave me that when we broke up and she said it was about me. I never read it." They would read it and then tell me I should read it and that it is me.

I read it for the first time about 3 months ago, hate to agree that they were completely right, it is me. Only difference is I'm more social than Henry Chinaski.

 

[bigtiny]

One of my favorites ( I think it's from Factotum) -- I'm paraphrasing:

"You get up hung over, vomit, ****, bathe, shave, and if your lucky you can get a hard boiled egg down. Then you have to go work, where they're not happy just that you made it to work, they want you to be HAPPY about it!"

"We've got everything, but can have very little"

bigtiny

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

I've read a bunch of his poetry, and Hollywood is one fantastic novel.

 

[Linas]

Sounds like this stuff would be right up my ally. I had an ex girlfriend lend me one of his poetry books, but i never much cared for poetry. In terms of novels, what would you guys recommend?

 

[MatticusMania]

One peice of advice; don't loan out your Bukowski books. You'll never get them returned.

QFT

 

[MatticusMania]

I never returned my beer-stained copy of Pulp to my (ex-)friend .

I have the exact same book, beer stains and all, that belongs to a friend of mine.

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

Sounds like this stuff would be right up my ally. I had an ex girlfriend lend me one of his poetry books, but i never much cared for poetry. In terms of novels, what would you guys recommend?

Hollywood.

 

[MatticusMania]

Sounds like this stuff would be right up my ally. I had an ex girlfriend lend me one of his poetry books, but i never much cared for poetry. In terms of novels, what would you guys recommend?

Read his poetry. Personally, it reads better than any of his books. Not that his books are bad, by any stretch, mind you.

 

[billiam5billion]

You should read a short story called "The most beautiful woman in town." It's incredible. Actually, the whole collection, "Tales of Ordinary Madness" is pretty flawless.