Charles Bukowski, American Author ~ Vote for your favorite Bukowski books

The voice of the people

Here, at long last, is your chance to choose your favorite Bukowski books and influence the course of human events for all time - on a single web page! We have broken the books down into categories, because we know what we're doing, and we're always right. Humor us and pick one from each group.

View the results here, or cast your vote below.

Novels
Post Office 1971
Factotum 1975
Women 1978
Ham On Rye 1982
Hollywood 1989
Pulp 1994

Poetry
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills 1969
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck 1972
Burning In Water Drowning In Flame 1974
Love Is A Dog From Hell 1977
Play The Piano Drunk Like A Percussion Instrument Until The Fingers Begin To Bleed A Bit 1979
Dangling In The Tournefortia 1981
War All The Time 1984
You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense 1986
The Roominghouse Madrigals 1988
Septuagenarian Stew 1990 (includes some prose)
The Last Night Of The Earth Poems 1992

Prose, other
Notes Of A Dirty Old Man 1969
South Of No North 1973
Hot Water Music 1983
The Most Beautiful Woman In Town And Other Stories/Tales Of Ordinary Madness 1983
Portions From A Wine-Stained Notebook 2008
Absence of the Hero 2010

Posthumous poetry publications
Betting On The Muse 1996 (includes some prose)
Bone Palace Ballet 1997
What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire 1999
Open All Night 2000
The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps 2001
Sifting Through The Madness For The Word, The Line, The Way 2002
The Flash Of Lightning Behind The Mountain 2004
Slouching Toward Nirvana 2005
Come On In! 2006
The People Look Like Flowers At Last 2007
The Continual Condition 2009

Other varieties of spice
The Movie: "Barfly" 1987 (screenplay)
Screams From The Balcony 1993 (letters)
Run With The Hunted 1993 (compilation, prose and poetry)
Living On Luck 1995 (letters)
Shakespeare Never Did This 1995 (prose, poetry, photographs)
The Captain Is Out To Lunch And The Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship 1998 (journal)
Reach For The Sun 1999 (letters)
Beerspit Night And Cursing 2001 (letters with Sheri Martinelli)
The Pleasures Of The Damned 2007 (poetry)

Notes: The astute and irritating among you may notice that every book is not listed here. We wanted to restrict the list to books that were readily available, so the ranking could serve as a sort of guide for new readers. The Most Beautiful Woman In Town And Other Stories and Tales Of Ordinary Madness were originally published as one volume in 1972; Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions And General Tales Of Ordinary Madness, that's why we lump them toether here.