Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Run With the Hunted | 1962 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 2 | It Catches My Heart in Its Hands | 1963 | Charles Bukowski | N/A |
| 3 | Crucifix in a Deathhand | 1965 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 4 | Cold Dogs In The Courtyard | 1965 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 5 | At Terror Street And Agony Way | 1968 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 6 | The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills | 1969 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 7 | Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness | 1972 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 8 | Mockingbird Wish Me Luck | 1972 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 9 | South of No North | 1973 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 10 | Poems written before jumping out of an 8 story window | 1974 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 11 | Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame | 1974 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 12 | Love Is a Dog from Hell | 1977 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 13 | Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit | 1979 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 14 | Dangling in the Tournefortia | 1981 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 15 | The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories | 1983 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 16 | Tales of Ordinary Madness | 1983 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 17 | Hot Water Music | 1983 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 18 | War All the Time | 1984 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 19 | You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense | 1986 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 20 | The Roominghouse Madrigals | 1988 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 21 | A Bukowski Sampler | 1988 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 22 | Septuagenarian Stew | 1990 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 23 | In the Shadow of the Rose | 1991 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 24 | The Last Night of the Earth Poems | 1992 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 25 | Betting on the Muse | 1996 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 26 | Bone Palace Ballet | 1997 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 27 | What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire | 1999 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 28 | Open All Night | 2000 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 29 | The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps | 2001 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 30 | Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems Book 1 | 2002 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 31 | Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems Book 2 | 2002 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 32 | New Poems Book One | 2003 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 33 | New Poems Book Two | 2003 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 34 | New Poems Book Three | 2003 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 35 | New Poems Book Four | 2003 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 36 | The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain | 2003 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 37 | Come On In! | 2006 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 38 | The People Look Like Flowers At Last | 2007 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 39 | The Pleasures of the Damned | 2007 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 40 | Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook | 2008 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 41 | The Continual Condition | 2009 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 42 | Absence of the Hero | 2010 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 43 | The Most Beautiful Woman in Town | 2013 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 44 | The Bell Tolls for No One | 2015 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
| 45 | Storm for the Living and the Dead | 2017 | Charles Bukowski | Buy |
Bukowski’s collected works include 45 volumes of poetry and short stories published between 1962 and 2017. Many of these were published posthumously, edited from his extensive unpublished manuscripts by John Martin at Black Sparrow Press. Major collections include Love Is a Dog from Hell, War All the Time, and The Last Night of the Earth Poems.
His short story collections, including South of No North, Tales of Ordinary Madness, and Hot Water Music, contain some of his most memorable prose. The sheer volume of his output means that new readers have plenty of material to explore, and The Pleasures of the Damned (2007) offers a useful career-spanning overview.