Ulysses

[Fluffpuff]

Finally got round to buying this. Anyone read it?
I'm expecting a very challenging read.

Bought it from a second hand bookshop a couple of weeks ago. I fully intend to read it - I'm just waiting until I'm in the right mood, whatever that is!

The Beeb did a brilliant dramatized version of it on Radio 4 a few years ago. That was excellent, but is the closest I think I'll ever get to it :) Would be worth seeing if it's still available as a recording to listen to.

To read it is my ambition too.
Last year I managed to listen to War and Peace and loved it. I don't think I could have read it!
I think Audible will be my saviour on this occasion too.

I had to read it as part of my degree. We had 3 weeks to read and discuss it, it's very funny in parts, challenging in others, a d requires a lot of stamina. But it's really worth it! You just have to throw yourself at it and keep going, I don't know if I could manage it now...

Oh feck me...what a book. Had to read it as part of my degree, and it nearly killed me. It didn't help that the lecturer introduced it as 'Right, well I'm sorry I have to inflict this on you all, but it's on the syllabus...'

Gulp

I love it! Admittedly Stephen is pompous, tiresome company a lot of the time, so if you are struggling with the beginning and/or want to kill him, skip to the beginning of the fourth chapter, Calypso, where you meet the much nicer Leopoldo Bloom making breakfast for Molly, whom he knows is going to have her lover in their marital bed later that day. You can go back and read the first three chapters later when you've found your feet.

If you would feel more confident with a plain prose guide to what's going on, there are lots available -- Harry Blamires' Bloomsday Book was the standard for years, but there are others, like Declan Kiberd's Ulysses and Us.

Dd has just read it as part of her degree, she said her tutor told them it doesn't matter if you don't understand as not many people do

Whilst discussing this, Dh said he'd read it for his O level,. now I know times have changed rather a bit, but there's no way he read it for O level. I've told him he's getting old misremembering!

For O Level? Really? Is he getting it confused with The Odyssey?

It's DS's favourite book. He read it for fun.

He clearly has a different idea of fun than I do. I do intend to give it a go one day though.

There is an audible "Great Courses" lecture series on this book. Does anyone know it?

I've been avoiding this book for 35 years - read some chapters, could not get on with others ... It's still there on my book shelf, looking at me

36 years after the event, I feel able to confess that I was supposed to read it for my degree in Eng Lit, but volunteered to do a seminar paper on Chapers 1 - 3, so I didn't have to read all of it. From what Mumchance says though, I'm over the worst, so might as well get on and read the rest. I remember the lecturer saying that Molly Bloom's soliloquy was quite racy, but even that wasn't enough to induce a 20 year old me to read it!

thanks Prokupatuscrakedatus for your recommendation
I'll get it when I am on new subscription

it is the one and only book I have not managed to finish
I read a lot, I've read great tomes, I've read much shite, I never give up on a book, but this one defeated me.

Good luck!

I keep meaning to, but putting it off for when I might have the stamina to go for it, which given I lack more stamina every year might mean it never happens.

Re giving up on books. I did that with Moby Dick. I seriously, seriously hate that book. Maybe it gets better, but I don't care.

I read this for my A-level exam (not UK-educated, free choice of books). No idea what I was thinking, but I guess I liked the idea of a challenge.

It's a clever book, but one that I found to be strangely sterile. I can't say I enjoyed it much.

I love Jane Austen, but at university I had to throw in the towel with Mansfield Park, half way through I found I just didn't care whether any of them lived or died.

And, the less said about Paradise Lost, the better

Thanks for the feedback. I've managed to read some of the introduction so far so I will have some idea of where Joyce was coming from. I think I've a challenge ahead of me!

i read it last year on holiday...this year am tackling the lliad...its not going well...:)

i had a crack at this "for fun" during university holidays, when I had a job with a 4hr daily coach commute. I did finish it, but could never claim to have understood it, let alone enjoyed it.

I've tried, numerous times. I just can't.

I read it about 18 months ago over the Christmas break, so I could have a good crack at it. I won't say it ruined my Christmas, but it didn't help! I found it very hard work indeed.

Ravenesque I hated Moby Dick too

Tried it, didn't get far with it. Hope you did better than I did, OP!
Didn't finish Moby-Dick either.
Did finish Mansfield Park, but thoroughly disliked it. (Sorry, Jane.)
Loved War and Peace, though.

It was "required" reading for my degree, although I seem to have the degree without actually finishing it, or even reading much at all.

One day I'll read it, along with a few other books I should have read, like The Sound and the Fury, and The Magic Mountain.

Ravenesque Yes, Moby Dick is tedious. Try Bartelby the Scrivener if you want a readable bit of Melville.