At this moment, I’m on page 249 of Ulysses. The first two “chapters” were fine, but quickly ramped up from here such that I’m swallowed up by references, themes, mythology, languages, and details. Any chapter from the viewpoint of Stephen Daedalus is really hard to get through, so it take me a long while to finish those parts. There are Post-Its all over the place with words I don’t know, and I’m underlining phrases I find interesting, deep, funny, or incomprehensible. All of which have caused me to look up online resources in order to more fully understand and appreciate what I’m reading:
Michael Groden’s Notes of Ulysses
I’m currently watching the Hades episode in this series of YouTube videos: Reading Ulysses for Fun. There is a video for each “chapter”, plus additional videos. This series is super helpful in explaining and pointing the way.
Guide to Ulysses (includes a guide for each episode)
The Joyce Project – where you can read the book where parts of it are annotated. I bought an annotated version for my Kindle so I’m using that when I don’t want to lug my book around (my book is hardcover, the “completed and unabridged text, as corrected and entirely reset in 1961”, and contains the new forward by the author and “the historic decision by Judge John M. Woolsey whereby the Federal ban on Ulysses was finally removed”. I can’t find a picture of the exact edition online; the ones that look like the cover I have are labeled “paperback”, but I have the hardcover).
Awkward Turtle 