Below I’ll give you my selections for the best Bukowski books by a few categories. I will cover these and other great books more in depth later.
- Ham on Rye: A Novel (2007)
- The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 (2008)
- Essential Bukowski: Poetry (2018)
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (2001)
- What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (2002)
- Pulp (2002)
- Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (2002)
- Hollywood (Canons) (2019)
- On Cats (2017)
- Tales of Ordinary Madness (2001)
Ham on Rye: A Novel (2007)
In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, woman, and the Los Angeles Public Library’s collection of D.H.
The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 (2008)
To his legions of fans, Charles Bukowski was—and remains—the quintessential counterculture icon. A hard-drinking wild man of literature and a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he wrote unflinchingly about booze, work, and women, in raw, street-tough poems whose truth has struck a chord with generations of readers.
Essential Bukowski: Poetry (2018)
Edited by Abel Debritto, the definitive collection of poems from an influential writer whose transgressive legacy and raw, funny, and acutely observant writing has left an enduring mark on modern culture.Few writers have so brilliantly and poignantly conjured the desperation and absurdity of ordinary life as Charles Bukowski. Resonant with his powerful, perceptive voice, his visceral, hilarious, and transcendent poetry speaks to us as forcefully today as when it was written.
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (2001)
A compilation of Charles Bukowski’s underground articles from his column “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” appears here in book form. Bukowski’s reasoning for self-describing himself as a ‘dirty old man’ rings true in this book.”People come to my door—too many of them really—and knock to tell me Notes of a Dirty Old Man turns them on. A bum off the road brings in a gypsy and his wife and we talk . . . . drink half the night. A long distance operator from Newburgh, N.Y. sends me money.
What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (2002)
This second posthumous collection from Charles Bukowski takes readers deep into the raw, wild vein of writing that extends from the early 70s to the 1990s. #42,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #135 in Dark Humor #226 in American Poetry (Books) #89 in European Poetry (Books) Would you like to ?If you are a seller for this product, would you like to ?
Pulp (2002)
Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer’s seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, this novel demonstrates Bukowski’s own brand of humour and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles.
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (2002)
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame is poetry full of gambling, drinking and women. Charles Bukowski writes realistically about the seedy underbelly of life. #162,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #827 in American Poetry (Books) Would you like to ?If you are a seller for this product, would you like to ?
Hollywood (Canons) (2019)
‘What will you do?’ ‘Oh, hell, I’ll write a novel about writing the screenplay and making the movie.’ ‘What are you going to call it?’ ‘Hollywood.’ Henry Chinaski has a penchant for booze, women and horse-racing. On his precarious journey from poet to screenwriter he encounters a host of well-known stars and lays bare the absurdity and egotism of the film industry.
On Cats (2017)
“Acclaimed writer Charles Bukowski turns his signature eye on the world of felines. A series of essays and poems all about cats, Bukowski’s classic funny and frank tone becomes, at times, even endearing as he explores and honors the majestic creatures and our relationship with them.” —BustleFelines touched a vulnerable spot in the unfathomable soul of Charles Bukowski, the Dirty Old Man of American letters.
Tales of Ordinary Madness (2001)
With Bukowski, the votes are still coming in. There seems to be no middle ground—people seem either to love him or hate him. Tales of his own life and doings are as wild and weird as the very stories he writes. In a sense, Bukowski was a legend in his time . . . a madman, a recluse, a lover . . . tender, vicious . . . never the same . . . these are exceptional stories that come pounding out of his violent and depraved life . . .
Best Bukowski Books: The Ultimate List
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some bukowski books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Reliable, Secure and Resilient Logistics Networks: Delivering Products in a Risky Environment
Author(s): Lech Bukowski
ID: 2309603, Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Year: 2019, Size: 5 Mb, Format: pdf
The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Organize, Plan, and Develop Edible Gathering Places
Author(s): Bukowski, Catherine
ID: 2576886, Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing, Year: 2018, Size: 143 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not absolute. Some books are really record-breakers according to USA Today, others are drafted by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant links you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.