Is there a list of books that one should read prior to reading

The Bible, The Odyssey, Hamlet and Portrait would be the bare minimum.

The Odyssey, just to get the parallels. Shakespeare, and Hamlet in particular, to kind of get the 'Scylla and Charybdis' episode. And A Portrait of the Artist, to know whose arm it was.

Then, I'd say, just go for it. Don't bother to understand everything – you won't. And if you felt like you needed some kind of aid nonetheless, 'The Bloomsday Book' should do just fine

The difficult part about Ulysses isn't the references, it is the stream of consciousness. Read other modernists instead, and especially other writers of that style. Stephens chapters are the only "intellectual" ones, but Bloom's make up the bulk of the novel

>>9104547
1. Dubliners
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Of course there's lots of other stuff that will help (not least the Odyssey), but Ulysses is such an open, wide-ranging book that nothing is truly essential.

As a general rule, the better read you are, the more you'll enjoy it.

The whole Western Canon. And you still won't get it.

>>9104547
Fifty Shades of Grey so you can at least feel a slight improvement when reading that pseudointellectual crap later.

>>9104614
Woah. Was Joyce THAT good? DamN!

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>>9105001

You can just read Gifford's notes and you'll get more out of it than "le reading the western canon" meme. But it's really tedious and boring doing it that way, I gave up twice trying. Going to try and read it solo sans notes and see if I won't get fed up by all the latin and other shit.

Thanks boys, I've bought Odyssey and A portrait..., I also need to re read Dubliners and Hamlet. Hope I don't give up this time

I plan on reading Ulysses by the end of this year or early next year, and my reading list consists of:

The Iliad
Thr Odyssey
The Aeneid
The Bible
The Catholic Catechism
Paradise Lost
The Divine Comedy
A couple Jane Austen books
The few Shakespeare plays I haven't already read

What else should I add?

>>9105224
>>9105157
This makes me think that Ulysses is the final boss of the Western canon

>>9105236
so Finnegans Wake is the hard optional super boss then that's actually difficult?

>>9105266
It's the boss that unlocks once you S rank every level. Beating him gives you the true ending.

>>9105157
dubliners is not 'required', read it if you want to know better joyce's style, still, its a great book.

>>9105224
that list is good but I would only say to you to dedicate all the time needed to read all that if you really want to read every single one of those books. if there is 1 book that you do not want to read but will read just because of ulysses, don't read it. (except for odissey, portrait and hamlet)

all these 'requirements' will help a lot and make the reading more enjoyable, however the true key to ulysses is re-reading it.

I cannot stress enough how much more I got from it the second time I read it, and when I say I 'got much more', I mean both understanding it (whats happening in "plot" but also seeing how it all fits as a whole book) and enjoying it a lot more than I had already enjoyed in the first read.

tl;dr
just go along with it and enjoy the view, do not worry much about 'understanding' it. when you are done, wait a while, read something else, and you are ready again. re-read it, its VERY worth it

>>9104547
The Odyssey obviously
Portrait of the artist (read Dantes inferno before reading this)
Dubliners too

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>>9105317
>I cannot stress enough how much more I got from it the second time I read it, and when I say I 'got much more', I mean both understanding it (whats happening in "plot" but also seeing how it all fits as a whole book) and enjoying it a lot more than I had already enjoyed in the first read.

Along with what everyone else has said you should also look at the gilbert schema for ulysses. It will tell you what part of the odyssey is being mimicked, the approximate time of day, and other useful things. I found it very helpful so it's worth checking out

>>9105358
my book has this in the last page. was wondering if all editions had it.

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Why is Ulysses considered the best novel of the English language?

>>9105317
I will read the Dubliners again anyway as I didn't quite like it the first time, I mean it seemed like a decent book but if it's so praised on lit I must have had missed something or just was to young to fully appreciate it.

>>9104560
>his arm

>>9105483
nice, many characters in ulysses are in dubliners too

>>9105483
Dubliners doesn't even hold a candle to what Chekhov can do.

>>9105710
sure buddy, keep wanking over your dead russians, you commie!

>>9105710
>Chekhov

mfw ppl actually believe Chekhov is better than Turgenev

>>9105925
Close call. Quite different.

>>9105224
I always find it silly when people say they will just sit down and read something like the Bible or the Catechism. That's not really how they're meant to be taken in. If you want to read the Bible, the best way would be to do it meditatively, over a long period of time, preferably accompanied by prayer or regular church attendance, or at least discussion with other people. It's too rich and non-linear a text to make reading it straight very profitable. Read it in pieces, make comparisons. In my opinion the best way to read the Bible (though this doesn't replace sitting down and reading it of course) is hearing pieces during the Mass over the course of years, accompanied by prayers, hymns, related passages, and of course the homily of someone who has, hopefully, dedicated their lives to it and the faith.

The Catechism is even sillier. It's a useful reference text of course, but it's like reading the dictionary or an encyclopedia cover to cover. If you want to do both, a great way would be to read the Didache Bible, which pairs commentary from the catechism (explicitly, it cites specific catechism sections) to passages from the Bible. It's a study bible based directly on the catechism. Again, it's useful to own a catechism and to read sections that are relevant or significant to you for whatever reason, but the way you have this laid out I'm worried that you're gonna try to just shoot straight through it, and I can't imagine that being enjoyable or useful.

Anyways, just some unsolicited advice. Have fun with that list, it's very good.

>>9105317
I have tried to read Ulysses two times and rage quited the two times on the sirens chapter, but my experience re-reading everything before that was great, much better than the first one so I guess what you are saying is right.
I guess I will try again in 5 years, probably I will be well read enough for it by then.

>>9106023
As someone raised a Christian my relationship to the Bible has been exactly what you laid out, and I have already been reading it sporadically for about six months. The problem is that I was raised Protestant, so I have none of the theological background required to understand the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is what I plan on reading. I honestly don't known where to begin when it comes to Irish Catholicism.