Buk for a birthday? (1 Viewer)

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fightwithspoons

My friend's birthday is coming up, and he and I got into Bukowski last year when we did a poetry project for English class. I was thinking of getting him some Buk books for his birthday, and I was wondering: where to start??

Since we did the project so quickly we didn't have time to get anything other than Run With the Hunted, so I could get him pretty much anything...

I was hoping maybe one novel/short story collection and one poetry collection? Any suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks.
 
I'd recommend South of No North for stories, as it collects two older works (All the Assholes in the World and Mine, and Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts) allong with some other good stories. Ham on Rye is a great novel to start with, as it recounts his childhood.

As for poems, why not get the recently released "Pleasures of the Damned?" It's $30, but it has over 500 pages of re-released and never before released poems. Cheapest way to get a Buk First hardcover these days. Otherwise, go with Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame.
 
A few of the later books mix stories and poems; Septuagenarian Stew, Betting on the Muse (I think)? They are decent books. For a strong poetry collection I always recommend Dangling in the Tournefortia. Hollywood is a very funny, sometimes overlooked novel.
 
I would also have recommended "South Of No North", but many of those stories are in "Run With The Hunted" which you already have, so you may be better off with "Tales of Ordinary Madness", "The Most Beautiful Woman In Town" or "Hot Water Music" for pure short stories.

As mjp says, "Septuagenarian Stew" and "Betting on the Muse" contain both stories and poems. And as Purple Stickpin says, "Pleasures of the Damned" is a massive collection of poems and features many of the most famous.

So if you wanted a book of poetry, I'd go with "Pleasures..." from ecco and for stories try "The Most Beautiful Woman..." from City Lights.
 
Notes Of A Dirty Old Man is great too. That's a collection of his weekly column in Open City, a mag from the late sixties. If you like his short stories, I think you'll like this one too...
 
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The problem is that Buk is so awesome and there are tooooo many books!

So right now it's between The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Dangling in the Tournefortia, Ham on Rye, and Post Office. And ideally I'd like to narrow it down to two.

Any further advice...?
 
Dangling in the Tournefortia and Post Office are classics, so you can't go wrong with them.
 
fightwithspoons said:
The problem is that Buk is so awesome and there are tooooo many books!

So right now it's between The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Dangling in the Tournefortia, Ham on Rye, and Post Office. And ideally I'd like to narrow it down to two.

Any further advice...?
Click to expand...

I like The Most Beautiful Woman in Town better than Notes of a Dirty Old Man, since they're both taken from his column, I'd do one or the other. How about Pulp, though? It's great for a birthday, a little bit more light-hearted. It's really a great read and it'll make you laugh out loud.
 

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