Dos and Don'ts

Dos and Don'ts to reading Ulysses for the first time:

1. DO read Ulysses - selbstverstandlich!
2. DON'T think too much while reading Ulysses (seems counterintuitive I know, but trust me on this)
3. DON'T skim mindlessly (the trick here is to read attentively and absorb the text without thinking too much about the confusing text you have just read. It's a balance.)
4. DON'T try to understand everything you read (it's not possible, unless you want to spend the rest of your life on the first reading. Take in what you can and let the rest come later)
5. DO find a partner (or partners) in crime to read with and discuss the book with if at all possible. (Ulysses goes down a lot smoother when you can share it with someone who understands your pain. Remember that old adage: misery loves company :) )
6. DO take time to appreciate how incredibly talented a writer Joyce was. (Often lost in all of the criticism about the impenetrability of the text is how beautiful the prose are.)
7. DON'T consult expert guide books that give you all of the answers, no matter how good they are. (I make this recommendation with slight reservation. If you are sure that you will never read this book again, and you want to get more out of the book, then a guide is appropriate for you. But, for the reasons I have already stated, I very strongly encourage a second reading of Ulysses, and at that time using a guide book. I really believe that the initial reading experience and all of the joys and pains that accompany it should be yours, and not some expert's who has read the book umpteen times and written scholarly papers on it. Personally, I think that any good book should be read at least twice, and wellspring books such as Ulysses are best read numerous times. But hey, it's your life, if you want to throw it away on only a single read of this classic of literature (and with crib notes to boot) then who am I to stand in your way?)
8. If you absolutely must consult a guide book, then DO read Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study. Gilbert was one of the privileged few whom Joyce shared information with about the contents, process, and meanings of Ulysses. It's as close to authoritative as you'll get. And DON'T neglect to read the introduction. It is a fountainhead of information. Again, a better book for the second read in my opinion, but if your only reading Ulysses once, go nuts with it!
9. DON'T give up! (This will be a challenging read. But don't give up on it, at least until you have given it a fair chance. I mean, the man spent seven years writing this thing, at least give him half a chance to make his case.)
10. DO read this blog and send me questions if you have them.
11. DO recommend this blog to your friends! And random strangers on the street!* The more the merrier! 

*(DO NOT offer or accept candy to/from said strangers)

Which edition of Ulysses should I read?

Doesn't really matter. Just make sure all the pages are there. However...

In general I don't recommend the versions I have found on iBooks for my iPad. They don't seem to separate the ends of one episode from the beginnings of the next, although I just found one version that does a good job of this (LibreDigital, Inc; $2.99). Unfortunately, no one clued LibreDigital in on the fact that the book is an epic and thus is has episodes, not chapters (minor annoyance, not a deal breaker). The plus with the iBooks versions (or other e-readers, Nook, Kindle etc.) is that there is an automatic concordance built in, fantastic for tracking patterns and repetitions throughout the book (we'll discuss the usefulness of this later). iBooks also has a very cool note taking function, so if you're a big note taker this might appeal to you. You can also find a concordance for Ulysses online. It is sneakily called Ulysses Concordance. 


Otherwise, for actual hardcopy books (remember those?) I really like the Penguin Classics annotated edition, with introduction by Declan Kiberd. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that you cannot get this edition (nor the unannotated version) in North America. Just as well, since annotated editions are better suited for subsequent readings rather than first readings.  In the end, whatever edition you can find should get the job done. If anyone has a particular version they like just shout it out! (I mean that metaphorically, as in here, in the comments section of this blog. DON'T go around the streets randomly shouting out book names and editions, unless you want to read Ulysses in a secure facility surrounded by the comfort of rubber walls, which might not be a bad idea...)

(you can also read the webpage version of this blog by clicking this here link!)