First Bukowski Purchase, advise me you bastards. (1 Viewer)

[Peace Easy]

Well I have been lurking around here for a while now, reading bits here and there. I was first turned on by factotum...which seems to be a bit shameful around here.

Anyhow One of my favorite authors has always been Hunter Thompson, but there is something about the relevance between Charles and all of us drunkards that has drawn me in so deeply that I think I should spend my rum money on a book.

This post is a request, For y'all to tell me what should be my first Buk Purchase. I leave it up to you, because it's 5 am and If I went now I would be dumbfounded by the choices. Or just waiting outside the bookstore like some kind of berserk whore.

Let me know your favorites and I'll go for it, thanks in advance you deliciously twisted bastards.

 

[bospress.net]

start with Post Office.

 

[Rekrab]

Yes. Bill is correct. Start there. That was my start for the fiction (well, after the "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columns). For his poetry, I first read "The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills" so that's what I would recommend after "Post Office", but not every Bukowski fan likes his poetry as much as the fiction. The fiction seems to work for just about everyone around here.

 

[PBBUK]

I like the collections of short stories. I think they are an excellent introduction. But if you want a novel - I agree with Post Office. The Most Beautiful Woman In Town (City Lights) or South of No North (Black Sparrow/Ecco) are great collections.

 

[Erik]

Beginning with Post Office would NOT be a mistake.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Read Ham on Rye too.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Factotum wouldn't be a mistake either, minus the relevance.

Or Burning in Water..., Dangling in the Tournefortia, or Women. Or anything, really...

 

[Gerard K H Love]

...or if you're a smart ass just start with Pulp. Then you would know it all.

 

[DirtyJersey13]

I'm a bigger fan of his poetry collections, such as Love is a Dog from Hell and his older stuff like Burning in Water Drowning in Flame. My only advice would be to stay away from the collections that were published within the past few years, in my opinion there's a reason why it wasn't released earlier. Once you rip through all his older works, then come back to the newer stuff.

 

[HenryChinaski]

if you want to read some good early stuff get Portions From A Wined-Stained Notebook. or any of the novels first except for hollywood or pulp. i'd get post office or factotum.