book report: summer reading

ideal bookshelf, jane mount 

  
  throughout the school year, i have to read things that i'd rather not read ever. on the road for example. i don't quite have the time to read what i want or pick out the books that i'd like to sit down and read. this summer, when i wasn't shedding a few tears over math 110, i  took advantage of my extra time and sat down to read a few books.

i have this habit where i start seven books at one time and finish none, maybe one of them. usually because i end up not liking them at all. i've been trying to break my habit this summer. i've found a new favorite author, read some books i quite liked and some i didn't like quite as much. i thought i'd tell you a little bit about the books i've read and started reading this summer and the books on my to read list. maybe you'll like them too! 

READ

ham on rye by charles bukowski- charles bukowski was a bitter, cynical, dirty old man and i love it?  ham on rye is the first in a series of books he wrote about a character named henry chinaski: a deadbeat, womanizing, alcoholic poet. the book is most likely about bukowski himself, that's something i really like. i've always been drawn to books about people and their flaws or biographies. it follows henry chinaski through elementary, jr. high, high school and his brief time in college. i've heard that it's sort of a coming of age book for teenage boys and a jab at j.d. salinger's the catcher and the rye, a book that i really enjoy as well. makes sense to me. ham on rye, the catcher and the rye. none the less, i really enjoyed it. it was one of the best books i've read in a while, but my least favorite bukowski book. 

women by charles bukowski- woman is part three to the miserable life of henry chinaski. after ham on rye, i decided to give bukowski another shot. i wasn't disappointed. disclaimer here, this book was kinda, sorta detailed when it came to sex. when i first started this book, i almost had to stop reading it because i wasn't sure if i could make it past the sexually explicit sections. if you can get yourself past those parts and remember that there's at least one every chapter, it's an excellent book. 

  this book is about all the women chinaski encountered. the women he dated, the women he married, the women he slept with and the women who wouldn't sleep with him. the whole book is about what men can't get right when it comes to life and love. henry is a lazy, bitter drunk who never could find love. he blamed it on the women he was with, but deep down, at times very deep down, inside him he knew it was all his fault. i think the book is very amusing to read as a woman. girls understand what chinaski got so wrong. henry chinaski makes you so mad because you'd never want a boyfriend or husband like him. on the flip side, you feel so sorry for him because he's old, pathetic and will probably be alone for the rest of his miserable life. i kind of have a soft spot for good ole henry chinaski and the dirty old man that created him. 

pulp by charles bukowski- pulp was the best of the books i read this summer. it might be my new favorite book. i've always loved things that have to do with mystery, and pulp is a mystery novel of sorts. the whole book makes fun of the pulp fiction genre and my favorite book, the maltese falcon. bukowski starts the book off with the line "dedicated to bad writing", which i quite like. it's about a down on his luck los angeles private investigator named nicky belane. it's about the cases he's trying to solve, which may or may not all be connected. 

i loved the characters bukowski created and lifted from literary history. my favorites were the mysterious women lady death and jeanie nitro. jeanie nitro would make an excellent halloween costume. if you want to read any bukowski, i think you should start with pulp.  

the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde by robert lewis stevenson- i've loved every book i've read this summer...except for this one. i'm going to equate it with on the road. i have to read dr. jekyll and mr. hyde for a class. i thought i would start with this one out of all the books on the class reading list because i honestly thought i would like it. i didn't like it at all and i'm still very confused by it. i'm actually so confused by it, i don't think i can even give you a plot summary. as for the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, i'll just leave it here. 

READING 

hot water music by charles bukowski- currently, i'm reading this book. it's a collection of short stories. again by bukowski. you're probably thinking 'not again grace. enough with this angry and disgusting man'. i kind of find him to be endearing. so easy to hate, even easier to love, and an incredibly good novelist and poet. all of the stories are about bukowski's own vices: women, alcohol and gambling. i think i'll like hot water music. 

life and holiness by thomas merton- in my freshman english class, we read a book called new seeds of contemplation by a monk named thomas merton. it was really difficult to read, but looking back on it, the book was one of the few books i've read for a class that actually resonated with me. i decided to try to read merton again. i usually don't like to read religious books besides the bible. i find that they come across pointlessly self-helpy and i question if they're really interpreting the scriptures correctly or just trying to make the bible fit their agenda. i stay away from them for those reasons. 

  i've been working through this book for awhile now. i use it as a devotional, because i'm not much for devotional books. the book talks about incorporating spirituality into your everyday life. life and holiness is a book that you have to work through slowly, not something to just read through quickly in couple of days. if you're like me and have a little bit of a general distrust of christian literature written by tele-evangelists and famous preachers, you might like this book. it gets right to the point and convicts you with the first line of chapter one. it tells you what you already know needs to be done in your relationship with christ that you often times forget to do. 

 TO READ 

love is a dog from hell by charles bukowski- angry poems about love by my favorite dirty old man- why wouldn't i want to read this? i'm looking forward to buying this book, feverishly reading the poems in it, and digging it back up on valentines day. 

me and the devil by nick tosches- when you buy a book at barnes and noble, your receipt has a little "you also might enjoy..." list. at one point this summer, i had bought pulp and william s. burroughs' naked lunch (one of those books i mentioned before that i start but never manage to finish) on my "you also might enjoy" list was me and the devil (it's also the name of the opening track to the album eyes wide, tongue tied by the fratellis. you should probably listen to that album it's very good). i'm not entirely sure what this book entails, it slightly scares me and i might need to find another merton book to read after it...but i think at some point i'll give me and the devil a go.