(Irish) The pleasures of the damned - Charles Bukowski - Book Review

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I've never done a book review before but this being my first I wasn't entirely sure how to write and structure it.

Starting off my book collection with Rudy's book 'Helium' definitely didn't disappoint, but when I went back to buy this (less than an hour later due to being recommended it) I had such high hopes.  With the only poems I had read being online, mainly instagram and Tumblr.  I was expecting something high.  So when I once started to read this I got lost in it, I didn't put it down for hours, I had to read another poem.  I was so lost inside of Bukowski's work that I then judged everything else I have read to that standard.  It was so emotional and so raw, I loved every piece.  Of course some more than others, such as 'Dark night poem '.  Which is a very short poem, but really makes you think.

It goes:

'They say that 

nothing is wasted:

 either that or it all is'

A poem I also fell in love with which is quite a bit longer than the last is 'The angel who pushed his wheel chair'.  Going from pages 71 to 73. It took a minute for me to go onto the next page.  I reread the last few stanzas just to really grasp what the message and what Bukowski meant.

Once reading these two (and a lot of the whole book in general) I had to take a minute to think about what it meant and interpreted my own meaning.  I can't put into words my new found love for reading and poetry since coming across this book.  I feel as though it has changed my life (cliche but true).  I finished work at 2am coming home and reading it until I had to sleep for work the next day.  I fell in love with poetry from button poetry mainly on youtube.  But reading this really exacerbated the problem of wanting to buy and read more books.  I don't have much to compare it to but I really do recommend this to anyone who either likes poetry or not, it just had a lot of little short stories with some very deep meanings and endings.

Thanks for reading,
Owen Valente.

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