Recommend GP some books to read

[SuperSneak]

Originally posted by Tingkai


What do you like about Bukowski? How would you describe his books (e.g. sci-fi, mystery, prose, etc.)?

Please allow me...Charles Bukowski was one of the most lazy, disgusting hedonists who ever put pen to paper. He was basically a Bowery bum who just so happened to write prodigiously, and was eventually "discovered" and made popular by the crowd that likes their prose gritty, extremely realistic and unforgiving. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be a sloppy, alcoholic skirt chaser cobbling toegether nickels for cheap cigars and wine and shlepping down at the horse tracks but always losing on the ponies and the tail, too....this is your man.
You love him or hate him...the movie Barfly was based on his life/works.
Totally autobiographical writer. I've really enjoyed him. In fact, my earlier recommendation of John Fante fits in, because Fante was one of Bukowski's biggest influences and they are not dissimilar...Fante is just gentler and more refined.

[Jac de Molay]

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - a great conspiracy/mystery sort of book, where a practical joke done by three book editors goes horribly wrong. Very complex. I can't tell much else, I've only started on it myself. But I do love it so far.

I triple the vote on this one. This is one of those books I read once a year as a gift to myself . One of my favorite books, and got me seriously interested in the history and lore of the occult and esotericism. It's a book about everything

Dave

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by SuperSneak

Please allow me...Charles Bukowski was one of the most lazy, disgusting hedonists who ever put pen to paper. He was basically a Bowery bum who just so happened to write prodigiously, and was eventually "discovered" and made popular by the crowd that likes their prose gritty, extremely realistic and unforgiving. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be a sloppy, alcoholic skirt chaser cobbling toegether nickels for cheap cigars and wine and shlepping down at the horse tracks but always losing on the ponies and the tail, too....this is your man.
You love him or hate him...the movie Barfly was based on his life/works.
Totally autobiographical writer. I've really enjoyed him. In fact, my earlier recommendation of John Fante fits in, because Fante was one of Bukowski's biggest influences and they are not dissimilar...Fante is just gentler and more refined.

Thanks, SuperSneak. I think you summed it up pretty well, but you forgot to mention that his stories are hilarious and strangely warm.

[SuperSneak]

Yes, that's true. But people like GP may not be as perceptive as you and I, so you kind of have to put it in very simple terms.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Ramo
Nonfiction, eh? Ever read the autobiography "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman"?

Done that, been there. Plus actually met a couple people who knew Feinman...

[Richelieu]

"The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made a Difference"
By Theodore Rockwell

Sounds like a match made in heaven...

[Panag]

hi ,

the Mole People , ....

or something in a different way ; Biohazard

have a nice day

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ever read 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt? Great book!

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by MosesPresley


Thanks, SuperSneak. I think you summed it up pretty well, but you forgot to mention that his stories are hilarious and strangely warm.

Apart from the ones that are totally repulsive, such as ones about raping children.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

GP- Some non-fiction tips.

"Into thin air"- Jon Krakauer. An account of the 1996 Mt Everest disaster. It's one of the most tense books I've ever read.

"The hot zone". I've forgotten who wrote it, but it's pretty famous. It's an account of the emergence of the Ebola and Marburg viruses, and it's the scariest book I've ever read, bar none.

"Touching the void"- Joe Simpson. I read a lot of mountaineering writing and this is one of the best. It's an account of Simpson trying to get off a mountain after breaking his leg then falling into a deep crevasse.

"The electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"- Tom Wolfe. The birth of psychedelia.

"In Pharaoh's army"- Tobias Woolfe. Best book I've read about the Vietnam war and the Tet offensive.

[TCO]

Ron, I've read half off your list and I liked them. Will check out the rest.

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by Ron Jeremy


Apart from the ones that are totally repulsive, such as ones about raping children.

WHAT?!

Give me the story title or book. I've read almost everything by the man and I haven't read any child rape stories.

[Anodyne]

Hey Imran, I have Angela's Ashes in my bookshelf... waiting on the line to be read.

[MosesPresley]

Ron Jeremy,

Are you sure you are not confusing Charles Bukowski with William S. Burroughs?
They were both beat generation writers, but other than that they have nothing in common.

[Sten Sture]

I just finished reading Blind Man's Bluff and it made me think of you ya little Rickover.

the Keegan book I would recommend is "The History of Warfare" - more of the social history rather than a 'in 1916 the first tank appeared'

Speaking of 1916, the book "1915" by McDonald, iirc is a great personal look into the first full year of WW1 with a lot of letters home and first hand accounts.