Bukowski

Sometimes a simple gift given without too much thought turns into a cherished possession. For my ex's birthday a few years ago I presented him with my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. A few months later on my day I was given the two expansions to World of Warcraft and his favorite book, Ham on Rye. I had never heard of the author Charles Bukowski before but as it was my then boyfriend's favorite book I was eager to jump in and see if he had poor taste in authors. I got my iced tea, went to my porch and started reading. As it turned out, he didn't. I immediately fell in love with Bukowski's sentences, his words; they're beautiful. A lot of people may not like his subject matter of alcohol, women and how work is debilitating but you can't deny that he is brilliant. Ham on Rye is about the childhood of Henry Chinaski who you can follow into adult hood in Bukowski's other books. 

I'm not big on poetry. Most of it annoys the shit out of me but Bukowski has some pretty awesome stuff. Check out Betting on the Muse, it's a collections of poems and short stories.