Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog of the Ulysses Men's Book Club. I thought I'd lay out some ideas and offer some suggestions and see what people think.

1. Meetings: As I said in the evite, I hope to meet every month at an Irish bar to discuss the book. I'd propose the 3rd Thursday of each month, unless that proves to be a conflict for anyone.

2. Schedule: This is a long and difficult book. My proposal is to aim for our last meeting to be held on or around St. Patrick's Day 2011. The book consists of 18 "chapters," about 800 pages. Figure on an average of 60-70 pages per month. I'll have a reading schedule worked out for the first meeting. Obviously, I'd like to talk some Joyce at the meetings, but I'm fine with discussions eventually getting to the great issues of our day as well: Sox vs. Yanks, Dems vs. Reps, WH vs. Avon, Guinness vs. Murphy's, etc.

3. Difficulty: As you probably know, this is a notoriously difficult book. For my money, it's also the most rewarding book I've ever read. My advice: Don't get bogged down, keep on plowing through, and don't be shy about getting "help." (See my next post.)

4. Homework: If possible, try to read the first chapter of Ulysses for the first meeting, Thursday 4/15 at the Half Door at 7:00. If you don't get to it, don't sweat it. I'd be happy to provide some background info re: Joyce, his first novel (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), and the organization of the novel.

"You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith."

-- William Faulkner