Today I watched a documentary about Bloomsday, and now I want to read Ulysses. Anyone here read it already?

Have you read The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? Ulysses picks up from that story, not immediately, but I would recommend reading both if you haven't read the former already. I love James Joyce's writing and I really didn't have trouble getting through Finnegan's Wake, so I guess I'm just naturally attached to him!

Ulysses is a little bit different in style than his other works, but it still holds that regionalism and is placed from an Irish perspective, and should be read from an Irish understanding. It's considered one of the most important pieces of the Modernist movement, and I hold it as the best of the era. Joyce was god, and Ulysses was god as the creator. I'd recommend you read it no matter if you think you'll enjoy the harsh realism or the stream-of-consciousness. Read it before you decide whether you'd like it! It's worth your time!

I don't think I've ever risked a chance to stumble over my words in order to display my James Joyce dorkestry... *See every other thread where Joyce is mentioned* Hahaha!

Long, silly book, although I still return to it in my thoughts, strangely enough. There's styles in that book that are used for the first time ever by Joyce and then never used again, by anyone.

I'd stick to Dubliners, a short story collection that's oddly touching. Portrait is good, as well, with some memorable parts (there's a line in the book, something like "he cried for the innocence he had lost," that sticks with me). If you're going to read any Joyce, start with these works to get prepared, or you'll lose interest within the first few pages of Ulysses.

Finnegan's Wake is a nightmare. Stay away from it. You have to either be a true genius, a rabid (and somewhat bored) researcher, or an Irishman to understand what's going on.

Read the first 90 pages of this and then realized that I had no idea what I had just read. I was very disspointed at myself but I'm going to take another stab at it sometime this summer. It just takes a lot of concentration to follow the dialogue, I'll need all my roommates to leave for a week or so.