Book # 8 Bob Dylan Chronicles Vol 1

It's the Chronic -what? Cles- of Dylan Yo. Started reading this I'm about 100 pages in. I've always wearily approached the songs, and thus the world of Dylan never knowing what to expect. I picked the songs and albums I like and chalked the rest up to being something maybe I didn't understand. I may have to recalculate my view on Dylan. Not because I've discovered some secret in the first 100 pages of this book, but because I was ready to not like this book, not like "Dylan the author" and it turns out that it's not that bad. Ok granted he's not the best writer. But what you do get is a sense of voice. You feel like you are pounding the pavement on the folk circuit in the Village in NYC in the Early sixties. He can't resist to give little nuggets that the casual fan would be dying to know (like how he got his name) but it's not schmaltzy, he always deals with said topics in a way that flows nicely with the rest of the book (even though later on when thinking back it may have seemed incongruous to put it there). I guess the point is he has a lot to say, and you could probably fill 10 volumes with the story of Bob Dylan, but this is a good start. I'll let you know how it turns out.


Thoughts anyone about this book?

Book #7 Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

It's been a while but that doesn't mean I haven't keep up
with the books. Finished My Dark Places. It was a good book I enjoyed the first part dealing with the murder. Later on when the detective goes back with Ellroy to reopen the investigation it gets a bit tedious. However, I think it does support the hardships of having to go reinterview a witness 4o years later and having them rember something totally different or not remember anything at all.
Ham on Rye, finished that too. Good book, I thought I knew Bukowski when I read Post Office, but Ham on Rye is just as good if not better. It deals with his foibles of growing up, high school, college and dealing with acne vulgaris. Just hearing him say "I'm going to kill you" everytime he fights someone is worth the price alone for picking up this book.
People should read this book just to know that when you were whining in high school about how fucking bad you had it, this guy probably had it ten times worse, although, he was built like a bull and could kick the shit out of most people.

I Could write about all the cool stuff in this book, but whilst browsing on Amazon, I found some pissant that gave the book one star. Now, everyone is entitled to an opinon, but this guy's review is hysterical. He sounds like some uptight mammas boy. The best part about these things is if you thought the book was so bad why did you keep on reading it jackass?

"This is the worst book I've ever read. There's no moral, theme or lesson behind it. You don't learn anything. It's not interesting. There are a thousand different characters and it's nearly impossible to keep track of which one is which because every character is equally boring, uninteresting and one-dimensional. Also, Bukowski was obviously a sick, perverted, twisted person. He refers to one guy as a "fetus-eater," and he goes into detail explaining things about bowel movements and masturbation (and in one case, one of his friends does a sexual favor for a dog). The story takes place from the early 1920's through 1941, and before I read it, I thought it might give an interesting perspective on what it was like to live at that time, with the depression and then pearl harbor going on, but no. It was boring as hell. Bukowski's life is incredibly boring and uneventful, and I really don't understand why he chose to give the world the misfortune of this book. It's terrible. Nothing happens. It ends so abruptly. I hate Bukowski."

Book # 6 My Dark Places By James Ellroy

Ok Finished BlueBeard a while ago, just haven't had time to post. Again, worth reading to find out what's in the potato barn. Moving right along started reading My Dark Places. Wasn't sure If I would like this one. Then found myself polishing off 40 pages a clip on the subway. I'm nearly done. This was a departure from the stuff I usually read because it's whats consider true crime.
Here's what the book is about :

"Jean Ellroy was murdered in 1958. Her body was dumped on a roadway in a run-down L.A. suburb. The killer was never found. The case was closed. It was a sordid back-page homicide that nobody remembered.
"Except her son.
"James Ellroy was ten years old when his mother died. His bereavement was complex and ambiguous. He grew up obsessed with murdered women and crime. His life spun hellishly out of control. He ran from the ghost of Jean Ellroy. He became a writer of radically provocative and best-selling crime novels. He tried to reclaim his mother through fiction. it didn't work. he quit running and wrote this memoir.
"My Dark Places is Jean Ellroy's and James Ellroy's story — from 1958 to all points past and up to this moment. It is the story of a brilliant homicide detective named Bill Stoner, and of the investigation he and James Ellroy undertook to find Jean Ellroy's killer. My Dark Places is unflinching autobiography and vivid reportage. It is no less than a treatise on 38 years of American murder. It is James Ellroy's journey into and through his most forbidding memories."
—© Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Anyway should be done in a few days with this one. I'll give it a recap then.