[ClearCase_guy]

Ulysses at Number 3? Let's examine the thought process:

"I've never read it. I tried, but it sucked real bad. My professor said it was really important. She didn't actually read it either -- she said it sucked real bad too. But, since it's so important, I guess I should vote for it..."

[Borges]

Influence has to come in somewhere. For the record I read and enjoyed Ulysses. No plans for Finegann's Wake though. Life's too short.

[A Citizen Reporter]

LOL, I had the same experience. Only my prof said that the way he read it was drinking many Gin and tonics on the beach! Great, eh?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Ullysses sucks. It's a classic example of the "all about me" attitude that started with modernism and came to marvelous fruition in postmodernism.

But if you want to read about the mental masturbation of a middleaged guy who can't get his act together, really, then read it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"A Classic: A book which everyone praises but no one reads." S. L. Clemens.

[JCEccles]

Try Finnegan's Wake at 27. Jarringly unreadable and impossibly opaque. I think Joyce wrote it as a practical joke.

Portrait of the Artist is accessible, as is Joyce's book of short stories, Dubliners. I personally have no use for his later works.