Charles Bukowski on His Love of Libraries

By Erick Mertz

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Powerful influences are critical for the burgeoning writer. We must draw on the wisdom of pioneers before launching down this strange path. One of those powerful influences for me was Charles Bukowski, specifically an idea in a quote by Charles Bukowski on libraries.

As a young writer, Bukowski’s allure was in his boozing and womanizing. Terrible to look back on now, there was a sort of romantic idea behind drinking wine all day and carousing with fans that (unfortunately) appeals to youth on the brink of an unconventional career.

Growing on from that though, Bukowski’s allure feels quite different now. Bukowski was a genuine gallows poet. Bukowski was brave and persistent in his pursuit of his writing.

Charles Bukowski knew how to be alone. And that’s what this pursuit is.

Bukowski On The Power Of Solitude

#bukowski #books #amreading #quotes #libraries #library https://t.co/YE7uIlWOiP pic.twitter.com/baAqWpvjLD

— Erick Mertz (@emertzwriting) May 22, 2019

For me, Bukowski’s renown as a drinker has always been overemphasized. Certainly, Bukowski was one of the “great drinkers” of our times, known to booze morning, noon and night whether or not he was writing on a book. That is only a small part of his overall appeal as a literary figure though.

What makes Bukowski a genuine touchstone is how he championed the importance of solitude. Other writers have lauded the need to separate and get away, but precious few in the modern age have been so vocal and articulate on the subject. Bukowski died before social media and cell phones were invented, but he bristled appropriately on any incursion into his solitude in an era which to us now would seem quaint.

Bukowski understood, I think, better than anyone in contemporary literature, the importance of being good at being alone.

The art of solitude and the need to thrive in it is more challenging now than it has ever been before. There are more of us walking around out there. There is fewer space where you can flee. Other people are everywhere. They’re in our lives even when we’re alone.

Charles Bukowski knew the importance of rising above the noise. More than this though, he understood how importance of finding a place to go.

"I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it."

~ Charles Bukowski https://t.co/AwXmkt2BnV pic.twitter.com/HSpifgPRoV

— Charles Bukowski Quotes (@bukowskiquoteus) June 5, 2019

Bukowski On Libraries

Los Angeles Public Library

Charles Bukowski wrote frequently about his surroundings. Environment was an integral part of his fiction and poetry. Bukowski on bar life is classic. Also on women. He is one of the great writers about horses and gambling.

Nowhere in his writing is his love more elegant than his love of libraries. Already a great thinker, Charles Bukowski on libraries is especially moving.

Charles Bukowski spent almost every day between his late teens and early 20’s in the public library reading and writing. Broke and going nowhere, Bukowski understood that libraries provided an important place for the down on their luck people from all walks of life. Whether as an escape into free books and music, or a nexus of opportunities, this quote from Charles Bukowski on libraries is my favorite.

[bctt tweet=”“First paycheck I get, I thought, I’m going to get myself a room near the downtown LA Public Library.” ~ Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye” username=”bukowskiquoteus”]

This quote has been transformative for me for quite a few reasons. First, it is simple. It is humble of purpose. Understanding the importance of a library to all peoples is critical. The hallowed book lined halls have always been some of my favorite places. But Charles Bukowski understood that a library’s importance was beyond money and that is especially moving.

When I decide to bring my writing outside the house, I think quite fondly of this quote from Ham On Rye. I can afford the cup of coffee or the beer to work in a cafe or bar. I can probably afford to rent a little space down in the industrial inner Eastside to write while overlooking the water.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Everyone loves a nice cup of coffee and a view.

But that would be missing the point for me. It’s not really about the money. It is about the surrounding. Not just about solitude. It’s about a certain kind of solitude. One I learned from Bukowski.

It’s about knowing where you belong and fitting yourself in there.

Erick Mertz is a novelist, poet, and journalist based in Portland, Oregon. This article was republished with permission from the author. It first appeared on his website, under the title “Bukowski On Libraries.”

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Related: Watch: “Let’s Tour Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles,” a Look at What Remains

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More Charles Bukowski Quotes on Libraries and Reading

Los Angeles Public Library in the Early 1970s (Library of Congress, CC license 2.0)

“I was a young man, starving and drinking and trying to be a writer. I did most of my reading at the downtown L.A. Public Library, and nothing that I read related to me or to the streets or to the people about me. It seemed as if everybody was playing word-tricks, that those who said almost nothing at all were considered excellent writers. Their writing was an admixture of subtlety, craft and form, and it was read and it was taught and it was ingested and it was passed on. It was comfortable contrivance, a very slick and careful Word-Culture. One had to go back to the pre-Revolution writers of Russia to find any gamble, any passion. There were exceptions but those exceptions were so few that reading them was quickly done, and you were left staring at rows and rows of exceedingly dull books. With centuries to look back on, with all their advantages, the moderns just weren’t very good.

“I pulled book after book from the shelves. Why didn’t anybody say something? Why didn’t anybody scream out?

“Then one day I pulled a book down and opened it, and there it was. I stood for a moment, reading. Then like a man who had found gold in the city dump, I carried the book to a table. The lines rolled easily across the page, there was a flow. Each line had its own energy and was followed by another like it. The very substance of each line gave the page a form, a feeling of something carved into it. And here, at last, was a man who was not afraid of emotion. The humor and the pain were intermixed with a superb simplicity.  The beginning of that book was a wild and enormous miracle to me.”

~ Charles Bukowski, from the forward to the John Fante novel Ask the Dust

“There is a time to stop reading, there is a time to STOP trying to WRITE, there is a time to kick the whole bloated sensation of ART out on its whore-ass.”

~ Charles Bukowski, from Beerspit Night and Cursing: the Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli

“I often carry things to read

so that I will not have to look at

the people.”

~ Charles Bukowski, from the poetry collection The Last Night of the Earth Poems

“It was a joy! Words weren’t dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”

~ Charles Bukowski, from the novel Ham On Rye

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