Post Office by Charles Bukowski

Written By: Charles Bukowski
Narrated By: Christian Baskous
Publisher: HarperCollins

[@pRandzq]

"And I thought, I might get used to it. I never got used to it." Genius.

[@joshmichaels1435]

"Eleven years, shot through the head"

[@theknappster2067]

I just started at the post office, I read this years ago and this hits so different now. wow.

[@vano758]

Hits so different. Exactly!!

[@jean-paulmarat236]

I couldn't believe what I was holding in my hands, Catcher was my first, I thought I didn't like poetry, that I didn't have an ear for it And then I realized that I just didn't find good enough before. It was 2004., a particularly good year, that's when I met Remarque also

[@cornsyruptrucker]

I used to work at usps, we will see how it hits

[@Evv_McMuffin]

I listen to your Bukowski’s most nights. Thank you so much for putting this up. RIP MF Doom.

[@officiallyspooked7805]

MF DOOM*

[@Evv_McMuffin]

Youre right. mb

[@stevebarber8501]

The narrator is perfect.

[@ALLCAPS]

Yeah!? Check out the other narrations by Christian Baskous, I have a playlist titled "Bukowski," and it includes a fair amount of Baskous reading Bukowski.

[@jadunbar88]

Don't know about that cause there are many times when his dialogue doesn't line up to the way Bukowski used to read his own work. It's the tone of being defeated by others stupidity that is missing.

[@mjharris420]

@@jadunbar88 yeah but just listen to others that don't get his voice right at all. They are unbearable.

[@OldHats]

Absolutely happy now

[@thelazyhuman3182]

×wewww eww we

[@bradcirrito4379]

Just finished the ham on rye audio book, I cannot stress enough how well of a job this narrator does. I’m an hour in and he’s got me cracking up the way he reads some of this shit. ALL CAPS RULES. Rip Dumile.

[@carsonwyatt8915]

plus the surly tone and attitude of his voice is actually reminiscent of bukowski's own character.

[@magnuskallas]

Doing the same order just now. And yes, for once a great narrator and possibly better than Bukowski himself at reading the prose (having listened to Bukowski's recording sessions, he didn't give a damn about being too professional).

[@Wiggles_vs._snuggles]

The end of ham on rye was epic

[@Pddy-je8pn]

When he says, "Chapter 23." He sounds perfectly defeated.

[@SuiGenerisMan]

This narrator is fucking amazing. It's like listening to Chuck.

[@tyroniousyrownshoolacez2347]

Christian Baskous narration. Nothing better. 👉👊👊. Thanks for sharing.

[@evangalyen3407]

I know it sounds strange to say, based on the manner of his writing, but bukowski seems like he was such a genuinely good person. Despite all the crude stuff, there's something really wholesome about him.

[@ALLCAPS]

Honesty goes a LONG way. I like that Bukowski claimed his father taught him to say what he means and mean what he says...

[@josephgrady2129]

All caps is the real MVP

[@tarquinbullocks1703]

Thank you, ALL CAPS. This is excellent.

[@francavan1295]

Loved it! Thank you. 🪳🙏❤️

[@kenn1116]

I’ve never read Bukowski, I only know of him through a Modest Mouse song, but damn am I glad the algorithm suggested this based off me listening to some Hunter S. Thompson. 15 minutes in and I’m cracking up at work. This is legit funny. Not Late night show, laugh when you’re told funny. This is Art.

[@cornsyruptrucker]

Thank you for posting this. I worked at usps as a rca (the crappy lil truck driver guy) and a lot of these experiences were what I experienced basically, the scary bossman was my trainer though. I was just about as unlucky as the main character here, as I worked summer and even got heat stroke while driving 😬

[@SpaceAlienJesus]

My favorite book of all time.

[@kaylemkerr6989]

Just finished reading this today; my first Bukowski read and it was good!

[@ALLCAPS]

good selection! I'd save Pulp for last, but next you should either read Women, Ham on Rye, or Factotum. Save Hollywood for after Factotum.

[@davidleewrath6919]

The part of the guy who never allowed him to stick the mail in the mailbox is beautiful.

[@ALLCAPS]

one of my favorites! hahahaha that part was read so well too. "WAIT! WAaaaaait!" hahaha

[@boadicea5856]

Jack Deveini It's beautiful and hilarious Jack.😆

[@davidleewrath6919]

@@boadicea5856 I always wonder what happened to GG. He's dead, no doubt about it. But I wonder if he killed himself from all the shame he endured.

[@cruiser6260]

Lucky it's an audio book, or I would need to read that through tears.

[@bowlingstoned2113]

That's also interesting, Hank pretty much leaves it open to literally any guess. My guess was always that he fell ill 6 months later and passed.​@@davidleewrath6919

[@Pddy-je8pn]

"Chapter 23". Damn, he sounds so defeated.

[@PresidentSquigglyMiggly]

Every year I identify more with old hank

[@ALLCAPS]

yes.

[@rorywhite6272]

Same

[@MedranoHijo]

Real Ones Know

[@Wiggles_vs._snuggles]

Don't we all

[@tanha8178]

amazing narrative. thank you

[@fatfrreddy1414]

Great book and very well performed....many thanks.

[@insight8390]

I just got fired from my last job about a month ago. Recently got a job delivering for Amazon. Man I feel like Henry Chinaski haha

[@abdelwahabkhoualdia2056]

thank you Charles

[@jenhasken]

Love this!!!

[@mikebloxham5346]

Fantastic, thank you for uploading this

[@davidleewrath6919]

The work that started it all.

[@noveltycrusade]

Loved this ❤❤

[@bowlingstoned2113]

"Forget the whole FUCKIN' thing..." 😂😂😂

[@Shmyrk]

Oh denggg a DOOM and Buk fan., subscribed!

[@ZnenTitan]

The first picture kind of says it all. It's like he's aware of what's going on while everyone else is oblivious. (The perfect visual representation of a gifted and insightful writer.)

[@ALLCAPS]

Yes i picked these images wisely! Thank god for Bukowski.net

[@cruiser6260]

Yes! Like when he gambles and wins because he's the only one who knows what's going on with the horses. He's the only one who knows how a pot bellied prematurely aged alcoholic can have beautiful women throw themselves at him like a rock star and beat up Bruce lee lol

[@threeinitiates8260]

Love the part when he throws the write ups in the trash 😂

[@sargTucker]

3:19:50 "her tongue darted in and out of my mouth like a tiny lost snake" 😂

[@ALXStrikers]

GBU Charles Bukowski ❤

[@MrUnit731]

“It began as a mistake,”,,, when I read that when I first picked it up, I was sold.

[@ALLCAPS]

makes you think "WHAT was a mistake?" hahah yes I heard somebody share this same opinion in an interview or a documentary.

[@mananshsharma9269]

The documentary is Born Like This

[@dearydarling]

I'm only at the 2 hour mark but this is such a strange change of tone for ol' Hank after Ham on Rye, Women and Factotum. he's so mellow and lol not a complete and instable drunk.

[@dearydarling]

@Херсон міщанина yeah i didn't mean HIS chronology i meant my own as in that's the order i read/listened in

[@Cantbuyathrilll]

I love how he quoted a policy paragraph as an introduction.

[@lobsterwhisperer7932]

Great novels, wish he had written more

[@rowandrake]

Went down like an express elevator ✍️

[@thranktwaddler]

the narrator guy sounds alot like the bukster well done

[@logann7048]

LOL!!! great reading..this guy rules

[@from-Texas]

He was one hell.of a bar fighter

[@diabolikmitchell2960]

I spent my share of time at the track. Chinaski knows A LOT about the game.

[@baronsaturday2103]

Poor Betty...

[@jackthompson8179]

Outstanding

[@welpiguess]

personal bookmarks: 1:16:29 2:05:05

[@Bowruss]

Buk! Don't try, kids.

[@-o-light8863]

Not bad narrator. Chinaski probably hasn't thrown any beer bottles from his grave. Work in San Pedro years ago, doing construction work in a school, work started at 7am. Anyway i used get there early like 5:45am so i could have breakfast at this joint that look stuck in time. I like that place because it had two hot waitresses, with good legs and beautiful buttocks, i like the way they wiggle their stuff when they brought my food and when they walk away, plus they smell like early spring, and that made all of me happy. I think by then i had read all of Chinaski's books, and i used to get a little nostalgic reminiscing on my life and how this old fool help cope with the shit i had going on back them. I got me writing dirty stories and poems, plus he might given a little push to beer bottles i used to drink from the grave. To make this short, I'm pretty sure he used hang there at musky restaurant, looking at those lean legs and firm buttocks. At end of each meal i walked the end street for s few minutes, and now and then a crackhead will appear from the alleys or some build, and just walk away into the distance, i drove a couple of times by his house but never when to the cemetery. Got to let the old man rest i said to myself

[@ironmaven1760]

The narrator is a perfect match for Buk...he just needed to pause and pour another glass now and then...😅

[@lambjack1]

Sounds just like him.

[@Bill-xx2yh]

I didn’t call in sick because I was to tired to think clearly. As soon as I decided to quit, I felt much better.. Lol Remind me "kinda" of Jack Kerouac..sorta. Also had a crazy friend who wrote books (Xerox’s and hand made and stapled together. Kinda High School, but a fun romp, interesting, (didn’t put it down).

[@carsonwyatt8915]

Kerouac was restless like Bukowski, the biggest difference is when you read Kerouac, it feels like he's taking a vacation with the dregs, the cons, the miscreants.. Bukowski feels much more like he is one of them and the vacation is his writing. If that makes sense.

[@Bill-xx2yh]

@@carsonwyatt8915 I THINK THIS IS WELL SAID. I would add Kerouac and his love of philosophy, religion in general and particularly with Zen.

[@BigTweez9]

Happy I found this

[@DaveSCameron]

Boss, just sound!!

[@JasonCoker-k4o]

❤

[@kenagibaloch4109]

it made me go into tears at 4:30:29

[@philosoblender5486]

I'm makin it at the track

[@barryg528]

Got a copy of “tales of ordinary madness”?

[@chrisclinton743]

Is this book fiction or biography ?

[@ALLCAPS]

Many of his works are labeled as "autobiographical" by various sources; but Bukowski would usually write something like "This is presented as a work of fiction and dedicated to nobody" in his novels, and this one, in particular, had that written. So, no, it's most likely some truths but a lot of fiction too. It's almost idealistic, in some parts.

[@chrisclinton743]

Thanks for the information ALL CAPS.

[@from-Texas]

Its bukowskis life as he sees it

[@baronsaturday2103]

I think if he would have said that his work is (partly) autobiographical, people would've probably sued or threaten him if their names where in the books.

[@wendigo2442]

47 minutes in is a bit of a surprise

[@ALLCAPS]

awesome pfp

[@DNJ9o9o]

Is this the entire book? The other one here is 7 hours long

[@ALLCAPS]

Yes. Other channels like to add fluff and repeat the recordings. It's weird but I think they did it during an age copyright strikes were more prominent

[@ALLCAPS]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGaxZGOVh85rf7M for example if you skip to 6 or 7 he ends on a weird part. I know that the book ends with "and I did", however

[@DNJ9o9o]

ALL CAPS ahh that’s why. Thank you!

[@Cantbuyathrilll]

He "didnt get laid". But at least he filled all the slots.

[@hwangjohn6981]

Ah. No subtitles... Damn

[@heydinosaur]

Fuck yeah, DOOM!

[@Slechy_Lesh]

1:03:38 Chapter 17

[@TheMusicmalife]

as non-native speaker, for me it is fast a bit to listening, but guys in the comments seem to be highly satisfactory. :)

[@galenpemberton4382]

All Caps, what are your thoughts on Women? Just finished I recently for the first time and it was by far the most depressing of all the novels.

[@ALLCAPS]

My thoughts? It was the first introduction novel to Bukowski for me! I loved it. The most raw and honest thing I've read in a while. Read it during a breakup and it was just a great pick-me-up during hard times. I forgot what novel I read next, but I do know Women was the perfect novel to read at first.

[@galenpemberton4382]

@@ALLCAPS Huh, interesting prospective. For me it was the last of his novels I read (only just finished it last week), whereas I've read the others more than 10 times. It felt distinct from all of those though so maybe I'll come to a different conclusion after another read through.

[@twomindz79]

3:46:14

[@Bennycanofbeans]

#MFDOOMlives

[@dapper_gent]

13:25

[@brand96bn26]

4:02:22

[@thiesbongers]

45:00

[@thiesbongers]

3:33:00

[@davidleewrath6919]

Would you be able to upload other stuff read by Christian?

[@ALLCAPS]

Jurgen Solstheim I basically only covered the Bukowski stuff that he read. I don't have access to anything else. Maybe in the future I can.

[@davidleewrath6919]

ALL CAPS Cool. I should check out some soundbytes from his audiobooks to see if he uses his Bukowski voice.

[@lobsterwhisperer7932]

I could hear him read anything.

[@winniehall5569]

My, I don't remember how I came across this guy but I fear he has exposed me to a world that one of my son lives. I hope to understand him better.He is a kind heart, but the world around him is not that. Well we all know that but some of us go about as we know something and others are just mad. Everyone is a little crazy and looking deeper, I relate well with this man even though from a different time and culture. I smell every scene that he describes like I am there with Him just observing. He takes the reader to the reality of life behind eloquence, suits and ties, tidy organised looking environments, that man you see in church, that woman that educates ones child that person you meet in the street and bring home and make a partner out of them, he changes the way I see the post man even though this is fiction. I am glad I started with Rye and Ham as this introduced me to the man himself. I will read on, to find out whether he thought his mother did him a favour to see him off his home with a $10 note (Ham and Rye) Heaven must be fun to receive this man as earth must have been getting small for His big mind as writer and a human just wanting to be left to be himself but never seemed to have chance to.

[@daz4787]

1:10:12 🤣

[@davidqueppet1406]

Why do all the boss types have southern accents?

[@davidleewrath6919]

You should ask Christian Baskous about that.

[@johnmartin2813]

Why does he keep pronouncing 'clerk' as 'clark' and 'route' as 'root'? Anybody would think he was English.

[@davidleewrath6919]

He pronounces clerk just like this en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/clerk#English. Route can be pronounced both ways in the US. I think he uses raut when he talks about rerouting.

[@stantonmulder361]

Pea soup

[@mikekeeton8187]

100

[@scmello3970]

What an amazing degenerate he was. Me and him are the same. I like knowing there was someone like myself

[@chnnlsrfr3873]

There's a little bit of Hank in everyone baybee, and keepin' in will rot you from the inside out

[@LRGDuran]

Its called our shadow.

[@pod9363]

So is he admitting to rape in this?

[@baronsaturday2103]

She's raping him. (Joyce, or the one with the yellow hair(?) But I'm at 03:20:41 maybe I missed something..

[@hankworden3850]

Why in the fuck do you keep erasing my comments?

[@ALLCAPS]

I dont touch comments. I believe in the first amendment so I have no reason to erace anything. If theyre deemed offensive for children or youtube then YT must remove them. Sorry mate.

[@hankworden3850]

@@ALLCAPS those nazi bastards! It was just a quote from the story!

[@ALLCAPS]

It tells me you commneted 8 times but only 3 are available to view meaning 5 of your comments may have been black listed or something. But you will never see me delete comments. Goodluck.

[@ALLCAPS]

@@hankworden3850 yeah and Youtuelbe is run by a liberal nutcase who will remove anything remotely "offensive". Research the YT algorithm.

[@rajarshiish]

1:22:50

[@MaxMillion-yv8ib]

1:59:24