I'm on my 4th attempt at Ulysses. It's just two dense. Too many niche references that only an educated early 20th century Irish citizen would understand.
[1] Ulysses took place all on June 16th 1904. Most of the book is stream of consciousness from Leopold Bloom. Bloom's Day is now a celebration of Joyce in Ireland
Try reading just one copy :)
Presumably there are dozens of companion references to explain those. Can anyone recommend some?
https://bookshop.org/p/books/ulysses-annotated-revised-and-e...
But also the free (online) Joyce Project with hyperlinked annotations:
http://m.joyceproject.com/chapters/telem.html
I wish I'd bought this version when It came out. It's pretty expensive now.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-cambridge-ulysses-the-1922-...
And I cannot recommend Frank Delaney's Re: Joyce podcast enough, sadly he passed away before completing the project
What helped for me is first reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which is kind of like an easier version of the same style that introduces some of the characters in Ulysses. And then following along on ulyssesguide.com when I was reading it. Some of the parts (the fake quasi latin) are extra difficult and it helps to have a guide so you don't get completely lost as to what's going on.
I tried it again aged 38 and I found it flowed much more easily. The protagonist Leopold Bloom, who I remembered as an old man from earlier attempts, was relatable. It turns out Bloom is exactly 38.
I find side notes too disruptive when reading so my crutch for the middle was to skim a short chapter summary before a starting each new chapter. This let me enjoy the dreamlike qualities of the text without needing to catch every reference.