welcome to... JULYSSES.this is part of a project in which i read intimidating classics over the course of a month in chunks i delude myself into finding approachable. this nightmare of a book apparently doesn't have "chapters," because that would make this seem at all doable, but it does have 3 books and 18 unlabeled basically unmarked episodes. so i'll be doing one of those a day.in other words, i'm acting out of self hatred again.EPISODE ONEi hate that these are called episodes, because it's m...

I have read Ulysses at least three or four times (and once with Gilbert Stuart's authorised translation) and always found unsounded depths that I had not suspected. Every chapter introduces new narrative techniques, new perspectives and characters, and new voices. This is a book that definitely requires some homework to fully appreciate. I would recommend the aforementioned Gilbert Stuart commentary and biography, the Frank Budgen criticism, and especially the classic Richard Ellman biography. T...

Often considered one of the ‘greatest novel of the 20th century’, James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses, is both a feat and feast of sheer literary brilliance. Reimagining Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey as the travels and trials of an everyday man through the crowded streets and pubs of Dublin, Joyce weaves strikingly versatile prose styles and varying perspectives to encompass the whole of life within the hours of a single standard day, June 16th, 1904. This day, dubbed Bloomsday, is celebrated wit...

Life is too short to read Ulysses.

Each chapter is rated out of ten for difficulty, obscenity, general mindblowing brilliance and beauty of language.Note : if you're after my short course bluffer's guide to ulysses, here it is :http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...But now... the real thing. ******************* 1. Telemachus. Difficulty : 0 Obscenity: 0 General mindblowing brilliance : 8 Beauty of language : 7 Stephen the morose ex-student isn't enjoying life. Lots of brittle dialogue, mainly from motormouth blasphemer Buck Mul...

"He puesto tantos enigmas y puzzles que van a mantener ocupados a los catedráticos durante siglos debatiendo sobre lo que yo quería decir, y esta es la única manera de asegurarme la inmortalidad." James JoyceUn tour-de-force literario. No tengo otra manera de describir el proceso de lectura que me deparó el "Ulises". Ha sido la prueba más dura, compleja y reveladora a la que me sometí con un libro (hasta que choqué con su “Finnegans Wake”), pero a la vez, una magnífica experiencia que nunca olvi...

I did it. I finished it. And it was everything everyone said it would be: difficult, infuriating, brilliant, insane, genius, painful, etc. You get the idea, I'm sure. I can't even rate it. How do you rate a book that left you wide-eyed with awe at the author's brilliance, yet simultaneously made you want to bring him back to life just so you could kill him?

5 stars because it's a work of genius, so everyone says.4 stars because it has so many deep literary and classical references that to say one understood the book, is like saying one is very well educated.3 stars because the words, strung together in a stream-of-consciousness mellifluous, onomatopoeic way, read just beautifully.2 stars because it was boring as hell. I just couldn't care less about the characters, I just wanted them to get on with whatever they were doing and have Joyce interfere ...

Sometimes reading a Great Work of Literature is like drinking fine French wine, say an aged Burgundy or Mersault. Everyone tells you how amazing it is, and on an intellectual level you can appreciate the brilliance, the subtlety, the refinement. But really it is too refined. It is unapproachable, it is aloof, it doesn't go with thatketchupy burger you're having for dinner. You're not enjoying it.But then you read the label more closely and realize that although it tastes just like a fine burgund...

I Can't do it, It fell in my toilet and didn't dry well, and I'm accepting it as an act of god. I decided against burning it, and just threw it out.
Yes, I am a horrible person.