My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Black Coffee Blues (Black Coffee Blues #1)
"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light, If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you." Henry Rollins, renowned spoken-word performer, musician, actor and author of several books, has a unique, hard-edged view of the
...morePaperback, 120 pages
Published
August 1st 1997
by 2.13.61
(first published March 24th 1997)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,322)
This is my favorite of all of Henry Rollins books. Especially good is the first section "124 Worlds". Very dark and provocative yet not without its flashing moments of humor.
Krzyztovph Colli
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Wanna-be intellectual types who think Black Flag is still relevant
Hank may have ruled when he was singing songs about fuckin shit up in the early to mid 80s, but his poetry is fuckin LAME. LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME.
There's this one poem in the back that's like "Hey you. Hangin out in the library with your unfashionable clothes.
I know you.
Hey you, sittin around
listening to music your classmates CANT UNDERSTAND
I know you.
I feel your pain.
Hey
hey you
hangin out on friday night alone at home
petti...more
There's this one poem in the back that's like "Hey you. Hangin out in the library with your unfashionable clothes.
I know you.
Hey you, sittin around
listening to music your classmates CANT UNDERSTAND
I know you.
I feel your pain.
Hey
hey you
hangin out on friday night alone at home
petti...more
view 1 comment
The problem with this book - the reason it's not the success it so badly wants to be - is not that there aren't moments of depth and prescience here. It's that those moments are hidden beneath layer upon layer of bombast verging on whining. Rollins has the charisma to carry us through and laugh with and at that in his exhilerating performances. Here, naked on the page, the pieces in this collection simply wail like a teenager at a hardcore show, but without the crowd, the music, or the shelte...more
Reason why I decided to read books of Henry Rollins was that I felt his philosophi is similary like mine. So I didn´t expect I would have found out any new information for me. And I didn´t.
But It was really pleasing to read short stories that can be just invented, taken over from neighborhoods or Henry´s himself. To have seen the subtext that says that there are the other ways of life. That satisfaction is not only in married life or in childern. Henry show us his world that can be so ...more
But It was really pleasing to read short stories that can be just invented, taken over from neighborhoods or Henry´s himself. To have seen the subtext that says that there are the other ways of life. That satisfaction is not only in married life or in childern. Henry show us his world that can be so ...more
For such a small book, it was darn hard to chew through it. Rollins has always expressed himself brilliantly in my book, and these early writings display that. Rollins wrote the intro to this copy in '97, and succinctly states:
"For me, this book is like the letter you write to someone that you regret sending seconds after it falls into the post box because it is so honest and revealing that you are mortified by the thought of having it read."
I think the difficulty that I...more
"For me, this book is like the letter you write to someone that you regret sending seconds after it falls into the post box because it is so honest and revealing that you are mortified by the thought of having it read."
I think the difficulty that I...more
Some fans of Rollins's spoken word tours might be a little surprised by this book, myself included. I thought I was going to be in for the same sort of thing that you hear Rollins perform on stage, but there are many differences that may be interesting to some and turn off others completely.
This is not the grown-up Rollins who has come to grips with his own place in the world and managed to escape from his own narcissistic angst. This is the late-twenties Rollins who is angry at the w...more
This is not the grown-up Rollins who has come to grips with his own place in the world and managed to escape from his own narcissistic angst. This is the late-twenties Rollins who is angry at the w...more
Tylyä ja niin mustaa huumoria, että ei voi kuin rakastaa.
Kokonaisuus pikkaisen kyllä kärsi kun mukaan astuivat päiväkirjat, joissa Hank valittaa, kuinka on kurjaa ja toinen ryppy kuvaan tuli runoista, joita kirjaan oli ripoteltu. Kuitenkin, jollei viimeisenä olisi ollut runoa "Minä tunnen sinut", niin voi olla, että kirja ei olisi ollut niin täydellinen kuin se nyt on.
Mutta huomio, ihmiset! En osaa täysin puolueettomasti suhtautu Henry Rollinsin tekemisiin. Hank kuitenkin o...more
Kokonaisuus pikkaisen kyllä kärsi kun mukaan astuivat päiväkirjat, joissa Hank valittaa, kuinka on kurjaa ja toinen ryppy kuvaan tuli runoista, joita kirjaan oli ripoteltu. Kuitenkin, jollei viimeisenä olisi ollut runoa "Minä tunnen sinut", niin voi olla, että kirja ei olisi ollut niin täydellinen kuin se nyt on.
Mutta huomio, ihmiset! En osaa täysin puolueettomasti suhtautu Henry Rollinsin tekemisiin. Hank kuitenkin o...more
I did not like this book at all. It was very disturbing and I just had to stop reading it. Being a person that suffers from depression it only made me feel worse to read it then better. Someone who writes such deranged things about chopping up a baby and throwing the chunks out the window onto the people below is not someone I wish to be reading his works. I really tried to read this book but I kept feeling worse and worse with each page so I just quit.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I love Henry Rollins, i think he is an amazingly interesting person! I wish there was more insight into his life in this book rather then his creative writing, taking nothing away from that i just would prefer to hear his tales from his life!
Journal entries made into a book? This was such an inspiration for me when I first decided I wanted to be a writer. This is one of those books you can take with you anywhere, anytime and find something profound to read.
A personal tale of travel and sorrow. There's a simple elegance to how Rollins describes the road and longing. He can describe a me-against-the-world sceanario of solitude without sounding petulant. It's very powerful.
I love rollins' brutal terse poetry, there is much here that is just shear genius, close enough to the bone that you're left with no skin, and the next piece acts as a salvo of salt, like salt on a slug.
a brilliant and honest to heck and a half book by a muscled creative of a writer.
henry rollins should be taught in school.
a brilliant and honest to heck and a half book by a muscled creative of a writer.
henry rollins should be taught in school.
Listening to Henry Rollins stand-up on my mp3 player is way better than listening to Henry Rollins audiobooks on my mp3 player. EDIT: Almost forgot to mention that listening to Black Flag trumps them all.
I enjoyed the first part of interesting perspectives, but the latter half droned on with rambling anger and unhappiness. It went on and on until I was thoroughly bored.
Not my favourite, the other 2 books in the Black Coffee Blues series are much better. I hope he continues to write series like these (based on his travels) and not just his ramblings.
wow this book made no sense, but some how made all the sense in the world...if you enjoy looking at yourself and the world around you read this book.
Much easier to digest as a whole compared to Solipsist. Haunting and truthful--reading his stuff makes me wish I could actually write myself.
The first half of this book is paragraph-long stories, most of which are about someone hating life and then shooting themselves or someone else. The title section is a little more interesting, diary entries all written from different stops on a tour while he has his morning coffee, and what's going on in his head at that moment. Reaffirms my opinion that his writing is pretty bad, but the spoken-word dvds he's put out the past few years are gold.
Re-read 2011: Bumped it up from two ...more
Re-read 2011: Bumped it up from two ...more
Jenna
rated it
yes I think I know you
you couldn't figure out what they saw and the way they lived
home was not home
your room was home
a corner was home
the place they weren't- that was home
I know you
you're sensitive
and you hide it, because you fear getting stepped on one more time
it seems that when you show a part of yourself that is the least bit vulnerable
someone takes advantage of you
one of them steps on you
they mistake kindness for weakne...more
you couldn't figure out what they saw and the way they lived
home was not home
your room was home
a corner was home
the place they weren't- that was home
I know you
you're sensitive
and you hide it, because you fear getting stepped on one more time
it seems that when you show a part of yourself that is the least bit vulnerable
someone takes advantage of you
one of them steps on you
they mistake kindness for weakne...more
Henry Rollins is depressed and angry, drinks a lot of coffee, has girl problems, and i love him
A great travel book. Also great if you have a lot of anger. It makes you feel less crazy.
Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins (2005)
This too is good, but not so Oooo!
GENIUS. love love love.
ok
Patrick
rated it
Recommends it for:
really hardcore henry rollins fans
Shelves:
grunge-slacker-twentysomething
I was actually embarrassed for Henry Rollins and myself. Embarrassed for myself for keeping this book around so long and thinking it would be cool, embarrassed for Henry Rollins for thinking it was cool. It's not cool. And I can't get rid of it. No bookstore will buy it from me. Fortunately I got it for like 10 cents at a library so the loss is negligible. But I want it to go to a good home. I want someone who actually likes Henry Rollins and likes this book to take it off my hands.
Miranda
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Miranda by:
friend - Todd
Shelves:
favourite
In my top ten fave books!
I do not know quite what to make of this. After reading this and trying to read an earlier Rollins book I am pretty sure that I have enough of a problem with his ethos to not entirely be a good judge of his writing. It is okay writing - not great writing. He comes off as a huge dick. Hard to believe he is 28 in this; he still sounds like a fucking adolescent. Sad. This is kind of why I can't be a punk anymore.
I suppose this review is true of all the rollins books i have read. For the most part, I can take or leave his poetry...my official review would be "Meh--"
but i really like to read about dreams he's had, stories from the road, or his crazy adventures like eating a burger while on LSD so he thought it was a baby head (and ate it anyway)....those stories are usually pretty great.
but i really like to read about dreams he's had, stories from the road, or his crazy adventures like eating a burger while on LSD so he thought it was a baby head (and ate it anyway)....those stories are usually pretty great.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Henry Rollins (born Henry Lawrence Garfield; often referred to simply as Rollins) is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, author, actor and publisher.
After joining the short-lived Washington, D.C. band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the Californian hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 until 1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins soon established the recor...more
More about Henry Rollins...
After joining the short-lived Washington, D.C. band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the Californian hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 until 1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins soon established the recor...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“You have to get away from them. You have to get as far away as you can otherwise they'll kill you with their lives. They don't know what they do. They are careless with themselves and they take too much for granted. They make their shortcomings your problem. The only way to keep your head above it and heal your wounds is to crawl away.”
—
42 people liked it
“When you title yourself, you immediately lend yourself to all kinds of pretension”
—
20 people liked it
More quotes…
