I've read The Odyssey, Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist

Nothing's at stake, start with Finnegans Wake

>>9967435
B-but I don't want to read that one.

Read Shakespeare, as there are passages about him in Ulysses. And believe me, even people who have struggled through pomo tomes will find themselves unprepared for Ulysses.

Don't worry about understanding Ulysses at first -- I had read all you had and a lot of Shakespeare and most of Dante and STILL had most of the things confuse me. Ulysses is an experience. I had to give up ~300 pgs. into my first reading

Damn. Well, thanks guys. I'll give it a go anyway after I read some Shakespeare.

I have a copy that I picked up for 50p at a charity shop. Normally I don't buy books until just before I plan to read them, but that deal was too damn good.

I fear it will sit on my shelf mocking me for years before I finally have the balls to dive in (I've not read any other Joyce yet so I am definitely not prepared).

>found none of them particularly challenging
bweheheheh.
hehehahahahahahahahah aaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
of course not. none of those are challenging.
you're not going to get Ulysses, so you should just read it and do it and try to have fun.
t. read Ulysses first

>>9968134
You mainly just need Hamlet, there's a chapter about Hamlet which is significant cause it ties into Ulysses' major theme of daddy issues. If you want a good sample though you could also check out Midsummer, Lear, Julius, and the Tempest.

>>9968076
Yeah I've read pretty much all the difficult tomes out there, and Ulysses still kicked my ass. The only other novel that comes close in terms of density is Women and Men, and Ulysses is pretty far ahead even of that in my opinion. Some people disagree, so it might just be that I didn't go into it with the right mindset.

Nearly finished PotA.

Should I read Beckett's and Flann's novels first or go directly for Ulysses?

>>9967423
hello friend. I am an advocate of Ulysses.

read Hamlet and you are good to go.
the most important requisit for you to successfully read it is to actually WANT to read it. You can read the whole canon, you will not understand it all, so the best suggestion I can give you is this: just read hamlet and read it, take your time, enjoy the ride.

if you really enjoyed it, now cames the fun part: re-reading it. this is where you will understand it more deeply. it is very nice re-reading it every once in a while, each time with more reading experience.

>>9968596
as I said >>9969253, I don't really think is necessary. I believe the really essential are odyssey, hamlet and portrait. even more important is re-reading ulysses.

as a matter of fact I am going to start re-reading the whole works of joyce next month. will start with chamber music (which I've never read), then re-read dubliners and portrait, ulysses and finally read finnegans for the first time. fucking excited desu

>>9967423
>40 other books in my life

holy shit guy did you start reading this year? are you in high school still? good god.

>>9969281
not everyone got in contact with books at a young age anon, but it should be encouraged nonetheless...

>>9968596
Beckett is definitely essential for Finnegans Wake because it's an easier iteration of that style, but I don't think he's entirely necessary for Ulysses. You should still read him if anything just cause he's fucking great by himself.

>>9967423
It's genuinely not a hard book to understand. It's the allusions and references that are difficult. Read it for the aesthetic experience, and if you enjoy it then go back to try to understand it in depth.

>>9969281
I'm 23 and I won't apologize dor spending three quarters of my life wanking and doing fuck all. Better late than never, I'm enjoying books and learning now.

Thanks for all the replies. Oh and, should I read it in English or my native language (Czech)? This I never know with books, that is, how much am I missing out reading translated books (which could be shitty, I never know). My English obviously isn't amazing.

>>9969281
Average person doesn't read at all.

>>9967423
>I found them enjoyable and none of them particularly challenging at all.
Because most of it went over you head.