Love him, Hate him, or Never heard of him. one thing is for sure. this raunchy old man has been entertaining me for years. an now i want him to entertain you. so i am gonna share with you one of my favorite poems by him.

Throwing away the Alarm Clock

my father always said "early to bed and
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise."

it was lights out at 8p.m. in our house
and we were up at dawn to the smell of
coffee, frying bacon and scrambled
eggs.

my father followed this general routine
for a lifetime and died young, broke,
and, i think, not too
wise.

taking note, i rejected his advice and it
became, for me, late to bed and late
to rise.

now, i am not saying that i've conquered
the world but i've avoided
numberless early traffic jams, bypassed some
common pitfalls
and have met some strange, wonderful
people

one of whom
was
myself-someone my father
never
knew



So who here likes bukowski?

Ham on Rye- awesome book.

He is by far my favourite author and my greatest influence-- evident from my writing style (Check some stuff in Vogon). Post office is fantastic.

"It's 4:30 in the morning, it's always 4:30 in the morning"

The poem applied to me since I am always "late to bed, late to rise" person.
I once made a speech in class about him together with Anthony Burgess etc. since my speech was about "late" bloomers.
I look forward to reading Ham on Rye.

Did anyone else think of the song Bukowski by Modest Mouse while reading this, or just me? That is the only way I have heard of him.

Would he be worth getting into though? Anything to start me off with?

Of course.

Read some of his poetry first.

I've only read Factorum. I liked it, but he's far from my favourite author. It was entertaining, but after I'd finished it it felt like nothing had really happened since I started it. I didn't gain anything from the book, or nothing more than the character's perspective. I guess I don't really know how much I get from other books, but it left me unsatisfied. Maybe that's what he wanted, I don't know.

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” -Charles Bukowski

Bukowski's writings are entertaining and engaging to a wide variety of readers; however, don't bother picking one up if you're easily offended.

Women is quite the read.

His recording of The Last Days Of The Suicide Kid is fantastic. I urge everyone to listen to it.