Below I’ll give you my selections for the best Charles Bukowski books by a few categories. I will cover these and other great books more in depth later.
- 1. Women: A Novel (2007)
- 2. You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (2002)
- 3. Ham on Rye: A Novel (2007)
- 4. Factotum (2002)
- 5. Notes of a Dirty Old Man (2001)
- 6. post office: A Novel (2007)
- 7. Love is a Dog From Hell (2002)
- 8. The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 (2008)
- 9. Essential Bukowski: Poetry (2018)
- 10. Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (2002)
- 11. Pulp (2002)
- 12. What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (2002)
- 13. On Love (2017)
- Related YouTube Video
1. Women: A Novel (2007)
Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintaining a sex life that would cripple Casanova. With all of Bukowski’s trademark humor and gritty, dark honesty, this 1978 follow-up to Post Office and Factotum is an uncompromising account of life on the edge. #27,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)…
2. You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (2002)
Charles Bukowski examines cats and his childhood in You Get So Alone at Times, a book of poetry that reveals his tender side. He delves into his youth to analyze its repercussions. #18,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #20 in Death, Grief & Loss Poetry (Books) #104 in American Poetry (Books) Would you like to ?If you are a seller for this product, would you like to ?…
3. 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. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast’s coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression. #20,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #129 in Teen & Young Adult Classic…
4. Factotum (2002)
One of Charles Bukowski’s best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.Charles Bukowski’s posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum…
5. 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. She wants me to give up drinking beer and to eat well. I hear from a madman who calls himself ‘King Arthur’ and lives on Vine Street in Hollywood…
6. post office: A Novel (2007)
"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers. This classic 1971 novel—the one that catapulted its author to national fame—is the perfect…
7. Love is a Dog From Hell (2002)
First published in 1977, Love Is a Dog from Hell is a collection of Bukowski’s poetry from the mid-seventies. A classic in the Bukowski canon, Love Is a Dog from Hell is a raw, lyrical, exploration of the exigencies, heartbreaks, and limits of love. #14,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #87 in American Poetry (Books) #54 in Love Poems Would you like to ?If you are a seller for this product, would you like to ?…
8. 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. Edited by John Martin, the legendary publisher of Black Sparrow Press and a close friend of Bukowski’s, The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works from Bukowski’s long poetic career, including the last of his never-before-collected poems. Celebrating the…
9. 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. Encompassing a wide range of subjects—from love to death and sex to writing—Bukowski’s…
10. 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 ?…
11. 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. #161,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #392 in Dark Humor #1200 in Classic American Literature #1476 in Hard-Boiled Mystery Would you like to ?If you are a seller for this product, would you like to ?…
12. 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 ?…
13. On Love (2017)
A companion to On Writing and On Cats: A raw and tender poetry collection that captures the Dirty Old Man of American letters at his fiercest and most vulnerable, on a subject that hits home with all of us.Charles Bukowski was a man of intense emotions, someone an editor once called a “passionate madman.” In On Love, we see Bukowski reckoning with the complications and exaltations of love, lust, and desire. Alternating between tough and gentle, sensitive and gritty, Bukowski lays bare the myriad facets of love—its selfishness and its…
Best Charles Bukowski Books: The Ultimate Collection
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 Genesis and download some charles 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.
On Writing
Author(s): Charles Bukowski
ID: 1399520, Publisher: Canongate, Year: 2015, Size: 2 Mb, Format: epub
Bukowski For Beginners
Author(s): Bukowski, Charles;Polimeni, Carlos
ID: 2576888, Publisher: For Beginners, Year: 2015, Size: 24 Mb, Format: epub
Living On Luck
Author(s): Charles Bukowski
ID: 2415928, Publisher: HarperCollins e-Books, Year: 2014, Size: 443 Kb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not absolute. Some books are really hot items according to Chicago Tribune, others are written by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.