karan129 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Whenever I see a critic's Top books list, Ulysses is at the top or near the top, so I decided to give it a read. And it fully deserves the place. Nothing I've read yet even comes close to Ulysses. Its just so far ahead of anything else, that you have to accept that it is the greatest book written and that James Joyce is a genius. Ulysses is a very hard book to get through. It took me three months, whereas say Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov took me about a month. I don't recommend using a dedicated Ulysses guide because a guide 'dissects' the book, and takes away the magic. What I did was to read a chapter, and then stick to the summaries on Spark Notes. Ulysses exists on two levels. For the average reader, even if you don't understand what he's getting at, the wordplay, and sentence construction is a delight in itself. Don't worry too much about figuring out what each and every sentence means. The second level is if you are a critic who's a English major, has Greek mythology on his/her fingertips, knows some French/Latin/Italian, is famaliar with Irish history, has read Homer then yup then you can worry about what every word means. Tip: Define <word> on Google is the simplest way to getting word meanings. Ulysses is out of copyright now is a free, legal download from Project Gutenberg... http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300 Ulysses@SparkNotes www.sparknotes.com/lit/ulysses/ 1922 review of Ulysses - interesting read http://www.saltana.org/1/ist/71.html Read Ulysses online (This is a hypertextual, self-referential edition) http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rac101/concord/texts/ulysses/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consciousness9001 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Read Finnegan's Wake now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakoluth Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Yeah, it's quite a treat He's a real pioneer in some of the techniques he used. His language is magical indeed. I'm seriously planning to lock myself in my appartment soon to re-read it properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariScotle Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 That is very high praise indeed. I enjoyed "Portrait..." so maybe I should check out this one. Not sure how quickly I would throw out "greatest book ever written" but this is art we are talking about here and it is always subject to opinion Nonetheless, I will give it a try Currently I'm in the middle of "Walden" for about the (dozenth) time [can't seem to get enough of HDT) But I will check into Joyce soon - I was looking for a next read recommendation anyhow, so thanks And anytime someone is looking for the most fascinating, life-changing, mind-altering, earth-shattering, awe-inspiring read of all times I always highly recommend the Bible. Good day to all, PsyON /and/ ReadON Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consciousness9001 Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 The Bible is pretty good. Old Testament as a traditional fiction teleological interpretation of events. New Testament as a brainwashing campaign and taking over of the lower classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karan129 Posted November 24, 2009 Author Share Posted November 24, 2009 Read Finnegan's Wake now. I will. It seems to be more intimidating than Ulysses so I'm waiting for a clear stretch of free time. we are talking about here and it is always subject to opinion Currently I'm in the middle of "Walden" for about the (dozenth) time [can't seem to get enough of HDT) And anytime someone is looking for the most fascinating, life-changing, mind-altering, earth-shattering, awe-inspiring read of all times I always highly recommend the Bible. Yup I was of that opinion right uptill I read Ulysses but it after reading it I simply had to admit there wasn't a better book out there. I haven't read Walden yet, thanks for that suggestion The Bible I might read, but much later. Being agnostic, I'm not sure how taken up I'll be by religious books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakoluth Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Dude, the Bible is one hell of a book. Doesn't matter if you're any religious or not. As Alex (A Clockwork Orange) said: It's full of ultra-violent sex and gore. Or something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karan129 Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 Dude, the Bible is one hell of a book. Doesn't matter if you're any religious or not. As Alex (A Clockwork Orange) said: It's full of ultra-violent sex and gore. Or something similar. Oh...ok. Well thats not what I read books for generally...but hey! you called it one 'hell' of a book I'll read it sometime then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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