Ulysses is a long book. It takes about a year to read, at least when you're trying to take classes, work, and read a few shorter books in between. But it's not at all a bad way to spend that much time.
It's been said by too many intelligent people that "The only reason one reads Ulysses is to say they're reading Ulysses." I think this comment is outrageously disparaging of the nature of literature itself. It would be no different if it were "The only reason one reads Shakespeare is to say they're reading Shakespeare", or Dickens, or Melville, or any other major author. It suggests that these authors are no better than any other random writer, and that one only reads their works for the pretentiousness. This argument is completely ignorant of the fact that these "great writers" are so named because their works are better than the vast majority of English literature! These authors wrote ambitious, innovative, rich books, and they have been read and enjoyed by countless people. They would never have lasted out of their sheer pretentiousness, or the efforts of some secret literary-cabal, or any reason other than their own merits as works of art.
So ignore these pedantic criticisms, and read Ulysses for whatever reason you want. It's difficult and it's long, but with some effort it is readable and quite enjoyable. Just remember that, as Vladamir Nabokov put it, "the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense". And lots of time.
——cs
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