What sparked your passion for reading? (1 Viewer)

[Minnie Salinas]

What was the moment in life when you think you reall started to enjoy reading? Was it from the first words you said? Or was it a specific book? A muse? A mentor?

For myself, it started when my mother was in nursing school, and she left out her anatomy and microbiology books out. I was only about five or six years old. I had gotten in them and tried to make sense of the latin terms in them. This cycle repeated for a while (I can't remember for the life of me) when my mother sat down and started to explain to me the terms, definitions, and functions of different parts and organisms. I think curiosity and my mother were my main motivations to truly appreciate reading.

 

[CoffinDodger]

My parents bought me books every week since as long as I can remember, ladybird books were first, then since I used to hate school I used to mitch off classes and spend the time in the library reading about everything and anything, I find books a great way to escape....

 

[Ponder]

Albert Camus - The Fall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(Albert_Camus_novel)

 

[esart]

I learned to read late in life. I think it was because I became proud of myself for being able to read the words and absorb the meaning of what I was reading instead of staring at the words on the page and only getting a tenth of whatever it said. And because I was a teen, I wanted to get past the Dr. Suess and go onto something juicy and adult as soon as possible (this is when I discovered Bukowski as a matter of fact ... right after the Salinger books). I am still a very slow reader, but I am a sponge. I feel like I experience the words more than many others do. Maybe that is or is not true, but it feels like it. Maybe I'm just retarded.

 

[number6horse]

I was a precocious little shit who learned the alphabet and some simple words thanks to the breakfast cereal "Alpha-Bits". This was around age 3 or 4 with my mother and grandmother. Comic books and school textbooks occupied me until I discovered "The Black Stallion" by Walter Farley at around age 8. That was my gateway drug and I graduated to the harder stuff like S.E. Hinton later on.

 

[Black Swan]

I started with La Comtesse de Ségur at 10 and picked up Erskine Caldwell, Sartre and Camus at 12. The transition was shocking. I quickly understood the difference. I looked for the right logo on my brother's shelves.

 

[Minnie Salinas]

Well there are a lot more less productive ways to ditch class. The school library was always a haven for myself also. Though I can't say I remember Ladybird books too well.

There's nothing wrong with being the tortise. I like to take my time on books too. Especially encyclopedias. But it's beens so long since I've had the time or focus to finish a book. I'm just glad I picked up Bukowski.

Ah comics. I still love them to this day, although I'm a lot pickier. I'm not going to bullshit you and say I read 'The Black Stallion'. I don't even remeber why not... Maybe I should add it to my reading list?

 

[esart]

There's nothing wrong with being the tortise. I like to take my time on books too. Especially encyclopedias. But it's beens so long since I've had the time or focus to finish a book. I'm just glad I picked up Bukowski.

Do you like his novels? I rather love his novels as much as his poems, maybe a hair more. And what other writers do you like besides Hank? Just wondering.

 

[Minnie Salinas]

Do you like his novels? I rather love his novels as much as his poems, maybe a hair more. And what other writers do you like besides Hank? Just wondering.

I'm rather new to the Buk scene, and I've mainly been his short stories. When I get back from business, I'm probably going to pick up 'Post Office.'

Also, when I pick up a book, it's usually either a some information source *i.e. textbooks, how-to's, etc.* or comics, but in the past I really liked classic writers such as Dante and Lewis Carroll along with more modern authors such as Mario Puzo and Frank Beddor. Frank is a guilty pleasure.

 

[esart]

I like Lewis Carroll. Bukowski's novels are quite easy to read. He flows, like he's speaking to you. Post Office is a great book. You might like Factotum too. John Fante writes this way as well. I prefer Fante over Hemingway because he writes just as beautifully without adding piles and piles of sap that take you off course.

 

[pig ear press]

My nan kept a bookshelf full of erotic literature in her toilet. I discovered a love of books and boobs all in that one glorious summer. When my nan caught me one day, deep in the pages of some cock-swaggling pirate tale, I was put outside with a toffee hammer and a piece of wood- and boy did that little hammer bash that wood. Over, and over, and over again.

 

[Minnie Salinas]

Well, that was slightly more interesting than the classic tale of 'I found my older brother's skin magazines.'

I like Lewis Carroll. Bukowski's novels are quite easy to read. He flows, like he's speaking to you. Post Office is a great book. You might like Factotum too. John Fante writes this way as well. I prefer Fante over Hemingway because he writes just as beautifully without adding piles and piles of sap that take you off course.

Do you have any titles you'd reccomend from Fante?

 

[esart]

Yes. Wait Until Spring, Bandini and Ask the Dust. I would start with those. If you like those, then I'd read The Road to Los Angeles and Full of Life.

Hmmm.. Now that I think of it, perhaps your 2nd book of his should be Full of Life. It's hard to chose.

 

[the only good poet]

Loved Full of Life. My dog stupid from West of Rome (2 Novellas) has that laughter.

 

[Iksanihc]

I just finished reading Ask the Dust a few weeks ago. I liked it. I'm in the middle of reading Celine's Journey to the End of the Night and finishing up Buk's Pulp. I didn't really read a lot until about a year and a half ago, when I got divorced. All of a sudden I had a lot of time on my hands and I got bored with going out all the time. I've read pretty much everyday since then.

Post Office was my introduction to Buk. I fell in love with his conversational style and short chapters that made it so easy to read his stuff. And the man is sort of a mentor for me. These days I'm inspired by people that achieve their greatest success in life after 40.

 

[Rob.]

I've loved it since I learned to do it.

In first grade, I read myself right out of my reading group. We were assigned to groups according to reading levels initially, but I quickly found myself reading alone in the corner since no one in my class could keep up. I couldn't get enough of it. I still can't.

 

[growing beard]

I'm in the middle of reading Celine's Journey to the End of the Night

how's it going? i opened it up in the library and was impressed with a lot of his lines. there was a poem where bukowski sang it's praises, if memory serves

 

[Iksanihc]

how's it going? i opened it up in the library and was impressed with a lot of his lines. there was a poem where bukowski sang it's praises, if memory serves

It's slow reading for me. Since I started reading Celine's Journey, I've finished Notes from a Dirty Old Man, Pulp, Ask the Dust and one of Buk's poetry collections.

Journey definitely has some gems in it, but I think Celine tends to ramble. It's worth grinding your way through the rambling to get to the good stuff, but I don't have the patience to sit for very long and get through all that. So I'm sort of chipping away at it. I'm doing the same thing with Naked Lunch, which is very dense reading for me.

 

[growing beard]

It's slow reading for me.

uh oh, better learn to like celine or you'll be in bukowski's doghouse lol

http://savebukowski.org/manuscripts/displaymanuscript.php?show=poem1983-12-29-out_of_the_money.jpg

 

[esart]

I don't read French, so I've never read Celine.

 

[growing beard]

Is that dry humor or are you just unhappy to see me? :)

There are people out there who don't read translations because they say too much is lost, so i can't tell if you're being sincere. To me it's a valid question, I don't read much stuff in translation, but I do read some.

 

[esart]

I'm starting to see why you didn't understand that poem.

 

[peterromer]

The first book I read and enjoyed was a Swedish book called "Hasse's diary".

It's a diary about a 10-year-old-boy or so from a very dysfunctional family.

About shitting in paper pieces and tell people it's candy...

About cry and love

About poetry

"When dad is drunk
He falls with a plunk"