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As Bloomsday is around the corner (June 16th), I'm wondering what others think of this novel. I have to admit to being semi-obsessed with the book, and I plan to begin my annual reading this weekend. I suppose it is the detail that does it for me. I get something new from each sentence each time I read the book. To me, this is the mark of a great novel. For those that have had trouble sticking with the book (as I once did), I strongly urge you to persevere until the introduction of Leopold Bloom, and perhaps, as was the case for myself, you will become hooked, and let Joyce do the rest of the work.

I've only read it once, but adored it. I still think it's probably the greatest novel of the 20th century, although it won't be many people's "favourite" (completely different criteria for the two categories, obviously). Having just finished DUbliners, I didn't see much in there that would have led me to expect this from the same writer (nor even the verbal pyrotechnics of Portrait of the Artist). Ulysses is a massive example of just what the form of the novel can do without really telling a traditional story.

Molly's soliloquy is still my favourite section - it's just beautiful. And I love that a tome loved by academics and tending to be dismissed as pretentious nonsense by people who read for pleasure ends with a paean to the joys of sex, the confusion in the heart caused by different forms of love and culminating in the eternal and unequivocal YES.

This is on my list for this year - I have never read it so it should be an adventure! I probably won't get to it until later this year, as I have several books planned for challenges over the next few months.

Susan - it's definitely worth having a "reader" alongside Ulysses. I used the Anthony Burgess book Re:Joyce (although it was then going under the title "Here Comes Everybody"). It will give you so much more enjoyment to understand even half of what Joyce is trying to say. It's a breathtaking work of genius, but not to everyone's taste.

I just finished the Dubliners last month, so I'm glad to be able to read Ulysses in this group. I started it a few times years ago but never got through it, so I hope for success this time.

And of course today (June 16th) is Bloomsday!

To celebrate, lets have the closing paragraph (okay - closing words ... as the paragraph, sentence even, is among the longest in literatire) of Molly's soliloquy ....

"...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

This is a good day to begin Ulysses.

I started reading Ulysses and had to stop. But it is on my list of books to finish reading. I am glad to see that others have enjoyed it so when I start it up again, I do intend to persevere. I did enjoy Dubliners so that does give me some hope.

I'm about halfway through. Yes, I can see Joyce is brilliant, and I'm catching a lot of his allusions, but I think this is a book to be read a few pages at a time.