These 3 are books I try to reread once a year. Fun and inspiring...

Absolute Beginners, by Colin Macinnes- Spoilers! (Mod, Jazz) Late 50s modern-jazz fan (predecessor of the Mods) struggles to keep his optimism and love of London during the Notting Hill race riots. The movie is fun cheeze, but not as good.

Slam, by Lewis Shiner- Dave get out of prison (tax evasion), starts hanging out w/ punks, ufo nuts, treasure hunters, and half the city of Surfside, all trying to get the house he lives in. Really funny!Read it online!

Doorways in the Sand, by Roger Zelazny- Fred Cassady is an undergrad, and has been for the past 12 years. As long as he stays in college he receives a stipend. But certain people want him to graduate. And there are aliens and thugs looking for his connection to the mysterious star-stone... Technically sci-fi, but it reads mainly like fiction/comedy. Read it online!

Years later, it hit me: the main thread throughout these books is that you should live your life as you want to, not as the world would have you live.

I just started reading James Howard Kunstler's Too Much Magic, which deals with building a nicer world after a whammy of global warming/finite oil/end of the electric grid. He actually doesn't come off as gloom-and-doom, but doesn't avoid tough questions.

Here's a Kirkus review of it.

Nice list. As a dish-dog, I loved Down And Out. Let me know what ya think of the graphic novels, I'm a big comics fan as well. 

Cheers, Dave

hips like cinderella said:

• Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• Hunger by Knut Hamsun
• The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
• Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
• A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

As for poetry, Theodore Roethke is probably my favorite.

Also, I'm currently reading Black Hole by Charles Burns in graphic novel form. I'm very new to comics/graphic novels, though.

Right now it's these books.....

• Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• Hunger by Knut Hamsun
• The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
• Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
• A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

As for poetry, Theodore Roethke is probably my favorite.

Also, I'm currently reading Black Hole by Charles Burns in graphic novel form. I'm very new to comics/graphic novels, though.

Well, let's try again, shall we??!:):)

A book on the DAR:)

<img src="http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6857/gaughtersoftheamericanr.gif" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/><br/>By <a target="_new" href="http://profile.imageshack.us/user/blackglove">blackglove</a> at 2012-07-04

They have a copy of Crews' A Feast of Snakes (I live in Atlanta, GA) at the local public library so I am going to start with that one. I used to live in San Diego for a few years, so Tapping the Source looks interesting too. (Never could stand upright on a board though . . .) They have Tapping the Source at the Kindle store as an e-book, so I'm gonna get it. Thanks again!
 
Campbell McInnes said:

Glenn, i was extremely lucky...a friend sent me his copy of The Hawk Is Dying (a first edition no less!)  that he found second hand.  And i recommend Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source.  It's long been my favorite book... still reread it at least once a year

Glenn Armstrong said:

Very cool owning a bookshop called Factotum. The Hawk is Dying looks interesting. I like the detail that the main protagonist is a seat cover salesman. The book is wicked expensive on amazon so I will try and find it somewhere. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Campbell McInnes said:

im a bukowski tragic... hell i once owned a bookshop called FACTOTUM !  but all the usual suspects as well in my favorites

Hunter S Thompson - Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas AND On The Campaign Trail

Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source

Kerouac - On The Road

Jo Ann Beard - Boys Of My Youth

Harry Crews  - The Hawk Is Dying

JP Donleavy - Ginger Man

Henry Miller - both tropics

Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius series

Spike Milligan's War memoirs

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hamsun, Tim Gautreaux, 

hell i read a lot! what can i say? :D

A book everyone should read:):)

Glenn, i was extremely lucky...a friend sent me his copy of The Hawk Is Dying (a first edition no less!)  that he found second hand.  And i recommend Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source.  It's long been my favorite book... still reread it at least once a year

Glenn Armstrong said:

Very cool owning a bookshop called Factotum. The Hawk is Dying looks interesting. I like the detail that the main protagonist is a seat cover salesman. The book is wicked expensive on amazon so I will try and find it somewhere. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Campbell McInnes said:

im a bukowski tragic... hell i once owned a bookshop called FACTOTUM !  but all the usual suspects as well in my favorites

Hunter S Thompson - Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas AND On The Campaign Trail

Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source

Kerouac - On The Road

Jo Ann Beard - Boys Of My Youth

Harry Crews  - The Hawk Is Dying

JP Donleavy - Ginger Man

Henry Miller - both tropics

Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius series

Spike Milligan's War memoirs

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hamsun, Tim Gautreaux, 

hell i read a lot! what can i say? :D

Other books on Ray Harryhausen who turned 90 recently......happy B-DAY RAY:):):)

By blackglove at 2012-07-03

Very cool owning a bookshop called Factotum. The Hawk is Dying looks interesting. I like the detail that the main protagonist is a seat cover salesman. The book is wicked expensive on amazon so I will try and find it somewhere. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Campbell McInnes said:

im a bukowski tragic... hell i once owned a bookshop called FACTOTUM !  but all the usual suspects as well in my favorites

Hunter S Thompson - Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas AND On The Campaign Trail

Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source

Kerouac - On The Road

Jo Ann Beard - Boys Of My Youth

Harry Crews  - The Hawk Is Dying

JP Donleavy - Ginger Man

Henry Miller - both tropics

Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius series

Spike Milligan's War memoirs

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hamsun, Tim Gautreaux, 

hell i read a lot! what can i say? :D

im a bukowski tragic... hell i once owned a bookshop called FACTOTUM !  but all the usual suspects as well in my favorites

Hunter S Thompson - Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas AND On The Campaign Trail

Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source

Kerouac - On The Road

Jo Ann Beard - Boys Of My Youth

Harry Crews  - The Hawk Is Dying

JP Donleavy - Ginger Man

Henry Miller - both tropics

Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius series

Spike Milligan's War memoirs

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hamsun, Tim Gautreaux, 

hell i read a lot! what can i say? :D

Sadly.....very sadly......we lost one of the last visionary authors...RIP to Ray Bradbury:(:(....how can we not remember masterpieces like: The illustrated Man (my absolute fave by Ray:)), I sing the body electric, Something wicked this way comes, The Halloween Tree, etc.?!!!!!

PKD is essential, but I have to be in the right mood to enjoy it. When I was 21 I read my 1st Dick book, Bladrunner, and it bummed me out so much that I stayed away from his stuff for 3 years! Potent writing...

If you have not read his later books Divine Invasion/Valis/(1 other, haha, can't bring up the title, it's a sort of trilogy) and the collection of his letters, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Just got this title on amazon for I think $5.38 as an e-book. Reviews were good. Got through the first 2 stories so far. Kelly Link reminds me a lot of Mark Leyner in a lot of ways. Gotta read more current fiction. Thanks for the suggestion! 
 
sleazy said:

"Dinosauria We" is a good poem. It is apocalyptic like the Bukowski short story Animal Crackers in My Soup from Tales of Ordinary Madness. My fave Bukowski poem is "The Strongest of the Strange." It is an ode to cultural agoraphobia. Bukowski says the greatest works of art are created by the strongest of the strange. Like the bagboy with a college degree in "Dinosauria We": there's a certain motion/of the hands/of a bag-boy or a bag-/girl/while packing/supermarket groceries. And Bukowski goes on to say that some people are their own works of art. That and 90 cents will get you a pack of gum in Peoria but I thought it was fun to compare and contrast. 

 Allerleirauh said:

It's cool.  Under the Roofs of Paris is the only book by Henry Miller I like.  I agree with Pikini Death Ray and feel that way about every other book he wrote.  Under the Roofs of Paris is really fun. I can understand why he is read as a misogynist, but I loved it.

If I could describe Bukowski's writings with one word I'd pick raw.  From everything of his that I've read, he truly loves women.  He wrote truthfully about life and relationships- which isn't always pretty.

Dinosauria We is the only poem I really like.

Glenn Armstrong said:

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

It's cool.  Under the Roofs of Paris is the only book by Henry Miller I like.  I agree with Pikini Death Ray and feel that way about every other book he wrote.  Under the Roofs of Paris is really fun. I can understand why he is read as a misogynist, but I loved it.

If I could describe Bukowski's writings with one word I'd pick raw.  From everything of his that I've read, he truly loves women.  He wrote truthfully about life and relationships- which isn't always pretty.

Dinosauria We is the only poem I really like.

Glenn Armstrong said:

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

Here's a good one...Hunger by Knut Hamsen (one of Bukowski's favourite authors). Well I though it was good anyway. Cheers.

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.