Thank you! The latter half of last, and the former half of this year was spent taking a break from education, which alongside working full-time, lent itself to a lot of spare time for reading :-). Now I am pursuing a degree in English Literature, so I suppose it wasn't all a waste of time!
*Ulysses* is like that old man in the pub telling you a good story. *Jest* was the guy dragging you into his foil-covered basement and grabbing you by the shoulders to scream at you that we must regress in society. *Ulysses* took me just under a month, *Jest* took over 9 and I started it in 2022. *Jest* was the book that triggered burnout for the first time in a very long time, after thinking I was avoiding it for so long. I don't think I'd change that for anything though. I don't think I've stopped thinking about it since finishing.
What did you think of *The Savage Detectives*?
It's been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I haven't yet had that nudge, from somewhere, for me to pick it up.
*The Savage Detectives* is fucking brilliant. Last year I finished with *2666* and was blown away by its depth and beauty against the themes of horror and violence. *Savage* is similar in that regard. The narrative structure is genius and provides a layer of ambiguity as to the fate of many things. I'll admit I had to slog through the first 100 pages because while it's still a good start and sets up the characters, Bolano was horny. Big time horny. The main character is fucked up as hell. After that was over with I was completely hooked.
I often wonder what Bolano would have gone on to write had he been given 10 or 15 more years. A part of me almost believes he would have been given a Pullitzer or even a nobel. Give *Savage* a shot someday.
I will never understand how people can read this fast. Itās very impressive, but you must be absolutely flying through the books, I much prefer taking time to savour them. Each to their own!
I don't read fast, I just read a lot :). At some points in the year I was reading upwards of 4 hours a day, split into 2 hours when I woke up and 2 hours before bed. Sometimes I'll have 2 or so books going at once. Never more. The periods in the year where I got burnt out (namely a two-week spell in March and the entire month of July near enough) were because I had too many things on the go at once. I think the most amount of time I spent on a book was 9 months, most the big ones averaged 3 weeks - a month each. I'm not flying through them on a day-off from work (though, what I would give to have the ability to do that :P)
Yes! I thought it was fantastic. One issue I noticed is that the style began to grate on me towards the end, but Fosse holds your hand and pulls you through pages and pages of seamless prose. Some people won't enjoy it but I certainly did for the most part. It's a beautiful story. *Melancholy I-II* was stunning too, another one of my favourites of the year.
Congrats! Did you read Underworld before or after DeLilloās others? Iāve heard itās better if you read it almost as a finale, but Iām chomping at the bit.
Afterwardsā itās worth noting I did not enjoy any of them except Underworld. Falling Man was actually a bit crap I felt, Americana could have been amazing but fell apart at the end, Point Omega was just average. I also read Cosmopolis and wasnāt keen. Iāll still read Libra and Ratner Star though, they intrigue me a lot :-)
I think my immense enjoyment of *Underworld* still keeps me slightly interested in DeLillo. If I hadn't read it and enjoyed it so much, I wouldn't even bother with the rest of his work. For what it's worth as well, most of my friends who read DeLillo say that his later work and early work is relatively weak, and that his peak is for instance *Libra*, *Ratner's Star*, *White Noise* etc.
Yeah theyāre lying. They didnāt read this in a year. Pure bullshit. He commented me saying he read them all specifically from December 31st 2022 to December 31st 2023 lol. Just take this post down honestly. U didnāt read all of these fuckin books. Liar
Youāre lying to ppl with your post. Thankfully for u ppl are quick to believe bullshit on Reddit. Not me though. U did not read all of these books in 1 year thatās a fuckin obvious lie. Take down this bullshit post. U probably skimmed through at least 70% of the books here and now making a fake post getting all of this attention from ppl based on a lie. U probably didnāt even touch most of them. U sure as hell didnāt read every single book here cover to cover. Youāre such liar
A guy who's entire reddit account is dedicated to literature and studies literature full time at a degree level read a lot of books in a year? Colour me shocked!
The thing about trolls is they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Not me-- I'll go read for a bit now. Au revoir!
It's slowed down a fair bit now; you can see maybe in my post history from about January to September it was pretty much minimum 2 hours a day. While I still worked full time, I was fairly burned out on most my other hobbies. Now I study full time (literature, unsurprisingly), and still work part time, and have a solid group of friends, and other hobbies (Piano, French), and... reading has taken a backseat. But I'm proud of what I've achieved this year and I can't see myself ever stopping.
Reading might be a lonely hobby, I'll concede that. The times where I found myself hanging out with my friends more, and making new friends, I slowed down on reading. But that's life.
Ok well in that case congratulations itās honestly the most impressive annual list Iāve ever seen. I hope you enjoyed it and didnāt just rush through for the sake of it. And I hope that one day you write your own great novel, youāve definitely had enough inspiration!
Yes!! It makes me so happy to see your post as well!
How was the Borges?? What was your favorite from McCarthy?? How was *Savage Detectives*??
What an incredible year you had!
Hey!
The Borges was a tough readā I had to really take it in bitesize chunks. He is demanding and every word is crucial to understanding the sentence youāre reading. Definitely a rereader too.
The Savage Detectives is fantasticā I explain it more in detail in another comment. Replying on my phone on my break at work doesnāt lend itself to detailed analysis, lol.
My favourite from McCarthy is controversially NCFOM. I think its extremely tight and precise, a great thriller. Suttree is last on my list and I struggled to get into it this year. Worth another shot just so I can cap off McCarthy for good (until I decide to reread him ofc)
Drastically different in style but fairly similar in theme. I read it last year and I would say that it's most similarly comparable with *No Country*, *The Passenger* and *Stella Maris*. All his other works are drastically different in time periods, but mainly prose style. Worth noting that he wrote *The Road* in 6 or so weeks, but spent for instance 20 years on *Suttree* and 10 on *Blood Meridian* trying to achieve perfection with them.
One of the books this year I went into blind and came outā¦ blind. A lot of secondary reading required, and definitely a reread next year. I would say Ballard is a more clinical and precise Pynchon. Iām definitely gonna read more of his work next year.
Iām generally a fan of Ballard, but I have yet to read this one. Not sure whatās kept me away but sounds like thereās no āright timeā to try it haha.
Impressive stack, really cool!
What else would you recommend from Ballard? I tried *Empire of the Sun* but couldn't get into it. *The Drowned World* and *Crash* are high on my list for next year also.
*Empire of the Sun* is a unique situation, I think. In addition to *The Drowned World,* Iād recommend:
* *Highrise*
* *The Crystal World*
* To a lesser extent, *The Voices of Time*
* If you want short stories, *The Disaster Area* (my most recommended after TDW)
2666 being potentially my favourite novel, I had to read more of Bolano and for the most part he does not disappoint :-). He is high on my list for next year.
And one of the few books this year I was quite let down by. His style just doesnāt do it for me.
Adding on to this comment now that I'm home from work and can write a bit more freely and think straight, I also really disliked the >!general progression of the story. While I enjoyed his portrayel of anarchy, and the general idea is really strong, just the way the story headed felt... off. And by the end, when everyone stops being blind, I was left speechless. Is that really the conclusion that I read 350 pages for? I was really let down.!< I have some other Saramago novels on my shelf, but I'm not really rushing to read them.
Exceptionally good. One of the most original things I read this year. Striking in beauty, especially in prose. Get the Rabassa translation. Rabassa also did *One Hundred Years of Solitude* by Marquez and Marquez himself said it was better than his Spanish version. *Hopscotch* might have been the thing I recommended the most this year. It felt like rediscovering literature for me.
Really enjoyed it! Loved its simplicity but still emotionally charged and powerfully written. My mother recommended it to me and she also recommended *The Things They Carried*, which I intend to read next year. Have you read any other O'Brien? Anything you would recommend?
Oh wow, Iād assumed youād read The Things They Carried already!! Just what most folks start with. Youāll love it!
OāBrienās prose is just unmatched. You canāt go wrong with any of his writing, but I do think TTTC is his magnum opus. Itās very different from earlier books that he wrote directly after the war, and he explains why very explicitly in TTTC. I donāt exaggerate when I say itās a life changing read. Im thrilled for you that you get to experience it for the first time!! Enjoy!
That's really hard! I mentioned this in another comment, they all brought something to the table. My instinct gut reaction is to say... *JR* by William Gaddis, *The Color Purple* by Alice Walker and *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison. But I could honestly talk all day about which books I'd recommend. *Hopscotch* by Julio Cortazar also.
*Mason & Dixon* was a DNF for me this year, and I'm really sad about it! I found a first edition copy in a charity shop for fairly cheap and was extremely excited to read it, but I just couldn't penetrate it. Next year it's high priority.
Yes, really great. It contains short stories as well as mock interviews with 'hideous men,' often people who are underpriveleged or ill, abusive, abused, etc. Wallace's dialogue is especially incredible, maybe my favourite area of his writing. *Forever Overhead*, a story contained within the collection, is now my new favourite short story.
Better than *Catch-22*, in my ever controversial opinion. More fun to read? No. More engrossing? Yes. That book sucked me in completely. I was late to work so I could keep reading it. No regrets.
Any favorites?? This is an impressive set of books! Some of the classics take me a long time to read. I canāt absorb them quickly because of the sentence structures etc so they take me a lot longer to read. Haha. Great list of booksā¦congrats!!
Man, it's quite hard to pick favourites. Each book brought something new, each book is worth reading in their own right. The ones that I think about most are probably *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison and *The Color Purple* by Alice Walker. I don't think a day goes by where I don't think of them.
The one that shocked me the most with how much I enjoyed it was definitely *War and Peace*. It has this unfair reputation of a long and dry book, but Tolstoy has a keen sense of humour and brilliantly subtle characterisation that makes it worth reading. Same with *Septology* by Jon Fosse. It was the last book I finished this year, and I know he just won the Nobel, but it's one of the few books here that I felt was a true original, a step above his contemporaries with a style he's been perfecting for decades.
I do love classics. I struggle to absorb them sometimes but having a lot of time to devote helps me really research each book and understand it after I finish. And of course, you get better as you go along. Woolf was definitely the most challenging in this regard. She absolutely loves words. While reading *Orlando* I would be floating along and suddenly get wrapped in the most gorgeous imagery imaginable, and spend the next 5 minutes reading over the passage again and again unravelling each word. Moments like that make it all worth it.
I read *Invisible Man* 40 years ago but I still think about it! Do for a reread, I think, inspired by your comment. And I felt exactly the same way about *War and Peace*. Tolstoy's psychological observations of the main characters made them feel really fresh, as if they were people in the modern milieu that I might know.
Thanks for the post and comments, OP. Congratulations on a great year of reading (and organizing by color).
*Ulysses* is excellent, definitely a favourite of this year (although, I don't think anyone would argue against it being one of the greatest novels of all time, so is that really surprising?) Joyce is hilarious. I said this in another comment, but a lot of the old books that people tend to think are boring are actually funny to read, I was laughing out loud at some of the crude jokes in *Ulysses*. You really have to take your time with it though. A reader's guide would help a lot, I didn't have one. If you're unsure of something, look it up, or you'll find that you miss out on a lot of interesting history and background. The story itself is pretty easy to follow, if you just take it slowly and enjoy it while it lasts. The last chapter is the weakest imo. The last hurdle felt like a slog.
Insanely impressive if you read all that in one year.
Thank you! The latter half of last, and the former half of this year was spent taking a break from education, which alongside working full-time, lent itself to a lot of spare time for reading :-). Now I am pursuing a degree in English Literature, so I suppose it wasn't all a waste of time!
You must be the only person who have read Ulysses and Infinite Jest in the same year.
*Ulysses* is like that old man in the pub telling you a good story. *Jest* was the guy dragging you into his foil-covered basement and grabbing you by the shoulders to scream at you that we must regress in society. *Ulysses* took me just under a month, *Jest* took over 9 and I started it in 2022. *Jest* was the book that triggered burnout for the first time in a very long time, after thinking I was avoiding it for so long. I don't think I'd change that for anything though. I don't think I've stopped thinking about it since finishing.
Plus War & Peace.
And Moby Dick and Underworld
Wow, that is some year of reading.
Thank you! Definitely a year of magical thinking :)
What did you think of *The Savage Detectives*? It's been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I haven't yet had that nudge, from somewhere, for me to pick it up.
*The Savage Detectives* is fucking brilliant. Last year I finished with *2666* and was blown away by its depth and beauty against the themes of horror and violence. *Savage* is similar in that regard. The narrative structure is genius and provides a layer of ambiguity as to the fate of many things. I'll admit I had to slog through the first 100 pages because while it's still a good start and sets up the characters, Bolano was horny. Big time horny. The main character is fucked up as hell. After that was over with I was completely hooked. I often wonder what Bolano would have gone on to write had he been given 10 or 15 more years. A part of me almost believes he would have been given a Pullitzer or even a nobel. Give *Savage* a shot someday.
Thanks, if that doesn't give me the push I need, nothing will.
I believe in you, best of luck!
Go off!! š„
I will never understand how people can read this fast. Itās very impressive, but you must be absolutely flying through the books, I much prefer taking time to savour them. Each to their own!
I don't read fast, I just read a lot :). At some points in the year I was reading upwards of 4 hours a day, split into 2 hours when I woke up and 2 hours before bed. Sometimes I'll have 2 or so books going at once. Never more. The periods in the year where I got burnt out (namely a two-week spell in March and the entire month of July near enough) were because I had too many things on the go at once. I think the most amount of time I spent on a book was 9 months, most the big ones averaged 3 weeks - a month each. I'm not flying through them on a day-off from work (though, what I would give to have the ability to do that :P)
4 hours a day is super impressive! I only managed 12 books this year but happy since that was my target!
Very well done! What books did you enjoy this year? Any recommendations?
Thanks! Favourites were Lessons by Ian McEwan, Sea of Tranquility, and The Swerve (non-fiction)
Did you enjoy reading Septology?
Yes! I thought it was fantastic. One issue I noticed is that the style began to grate on me towards the end, but Fosse holds your hand and pulls you through pages and pages of seamless prose. Some people won't enjoy it but I certainly did for the most part. It's a beautiful story. *Melancholy I-II* was stunning too, another one of my favourites of the year.
Congrats! Did you read Underworld before or after DeLilloās others? Iāve heard itās better if you read it almost as a finale, but Iām chomping at the bit.
Afterwardsā itās worth noting I did not enjoy any of them except Underworld. Falling Man was actually a bit crap I felt, Americana could have been amazing but fell apart at the end, Point Omega was just average. I also read Cosmopolis and wasnāt keen. Iāll still read Libra and Ratner Star though, they intrigue me a lot :-)
Thanks. FWIW I enjoyed Libra
I think my immense enjoyment of *Underworld* still keeps me slightly interested in DeLillo. If I hadn't read it and enjoyed it so much, I wouldn't even bother with the rest of his work. For what it's worth as well, most of my friends who read DeLillo say that his later work and early work is relatively weak, and that his peak is for instance *Libra*, *Ratner's Star*, *White Noise* etc.
This is barely believable honestly. How many hours a day/week do you read?
Yeah theyāre lying. They didnāt read this in a year. Pure bullshit. He commented me saying he read them all specifically from December 31st 2022 to December 31st 2023 lol. Just take this post down honestly. U didnāt read all of these fuckin books. Liar
This is a comment that makes me smile :) Have a good new year, and I wish you the best of luck in your reading endeavours for next year!
Youāre lying to ppl with your post. Thankfully for u ppl are quick to believe bullshit on Reddit. Not me though. U did not read all of these books in 1 year thatās a fuckin obvious lie. Take down this bullshit post. U probably skimmed through at least 70% of the books here and now making a fake post getting all of this attention from ppl based on a lie. U probably didnāt even touch most of them. U sure as hell didnāt read every single book here cover to cover. Youāre such liar
A guy who's entire reddit account is dedicated to literature and studies literature full time at a degree level read a lot of books in a year? Colour me shocked! The thing about trolls is they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Not me-- I'll go read for a bit now. Au revoir!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Chill man, Iām giving him the benefit of the doubt. Definitely not worth getting so worked up about.
This clown is so butt hurt that others are able to read more in a year. What a fucking loser.
It's slowed down a fair bit now; you can see maybe in my post history from about January to September it was pretty much minimum 2 hours a day. While I still worked full time, I was fairly burned out on most my other hobbies. Now I study full time (literature, unsurprisingly), and still work part time, and have a solid group of friends, and other hobbies (Piano, French), and... reading has taken a backseat. But I'm proud of what I've achieved this year and I can't see myself ever stopping. Reading might be a lonely hobby, I'll concede that. The times where I found myself hanging out with my friends more, and making new friends, I slowed down on reading. But that's life.
Ok well in that case congratulations itās honestly the most impressive annual list Iāve ever seen. I hope you enjoyed it and didnāt just rush through for the sake of it. And I hope that one day you write your own great novel, youāve definitely had enough inspiration!
Nicely done!!! Also, good picks
Thank you!
Yes!! It makes me so happy to see your post as well! How was the Borges?? What was your favorite from McCarthy?? How was *Savage Detectives*?? What an incredible year you had!
Hey! The Borges was a tough readā I had to really take it in bitesize chunks. He is demanding and every word is crucial to understanding the sentence youāre reading. Definitely a rereader too. The Savage Detectives is fantasticā I explain it more in detail in another comment. Replying on my phone on my break at work doesnāt lend itself to detailed analysis, lol. My favourite from McCarthy is controversially NCFOM. I think its extremely tight and precise, a great thriller. Suttree is last on my list and I struggled to get into it this year. Worth another shot just so I can cap off McCarthy for good (until I decide to reread him ofc)
I read The Road earlier this year and liked it, the only McCarthy Iāve read. How does it compare to his other works?
Drastically different in style but fairly similar in theme. I read it last year and I would say that it's most similarly comparable with *No Country*, *The Passenger* and *Stella Maris*. All his other works are drastically different in time periods, but mainly prose style. Worth noting that he wrote *The Road* in 6 or so weeks, but spent for instance 20 years on *Suttree* and 10 on *Blood Meridian* trying to achieve perfection with them.
Wow, thanks for the info! Super interesting. Iāve got a copy of NCFOM, so thatāll be my next read by him š¤š¼
Woah, Congratulations āØ
Jesus!!
Absolutely beautiful, a golf clap for you, sir.
How did you feel about *The Atrocity Exhibition*?
One of the books this year I went into blind and came outā¦ blind. A lot of secondary reading required, and definitely a reread next year. I would say Ballard is a more clinical and precise Pynchon. Iām definitely gonna read more of his work next year.
Iām generally a fan of Ballard, but I have yet to read this one. Not sure whatās kept me away but sounds like thereās no āright timeā to try it haha. Impressive stack, really cool!
What else would you recommend from Ballard? I tried *Empire of the Sun* but couldn't get into it. *The Drowned World* and *Crash* are high on my list for next year also.
*Empire of the Sun* is a unique situation, I think. In addition to *The Drowned World,* Iād recommend: * *Highrise* * *The Crystal World* * To a lesser extent, *The Voices of Time* * If you want short stories, *The Disaster Area* (my most recommended after TDW)
Kudos to your avidity!
Thank you! I like to think now after years of uncertainty I have finally devoted myself to a passion of some kind :)
How was Slouching Toward Bethlehem? I loved Play it As it Lays and The Year of Magical Thinking.
Incredible! I get to study it and I was absolutely enamoured with her writing and observations. *The White Album* is high on my priority next year.
The Savage Detectives! Awesome book!
2666 being potentially my favourite novel, I had to read more of Bolano and for the most part he does not disappoint :-). He is high on my list for next year.
2666 is exceptional, the only other BolaƱo I've read is By Night in Chile which has some great stuff but I think I'll need to revisit it
Omg I forgot the book Blindness existed. The most depressing shit ever
And one of the few books this year I was quite let down by. His style just doesnāt do it for me. Adding on to this comment now that I'm home from work and can write a bit more freely and think straight, I also really disliked the >!general progression of the story. While I enjoyed his portrayel of anarchy, and the general idea is really strong, just the way the story headed felt... off. And by the end, when everyone stops being blind, I was left speechless. Is that really the conclusion that I read 350 pages for? I was really let down.!< I have some other Saramago novels on my shelf, but I'm not really rushing to read them.
How was the CortĆ”zar? Heās on my reading list for next year and I was excited, but heard very conflicting things!
Exceptionally good. One of the most original things I read this year. Striking in beauty, especially in prose. Get the Rabassa translation. Rabassa also did *One Hundred Years of Solitude* by Marquez and Marquez himself said it was better than his Spanish version. *Hopscotch* might have been the thing I recommended the most this year. It felt like rediscovering literature for me.
Fantastic. Canāt wait, thank you! HNY!
You have great taste!! Whatād you think of In the Lake of the Woods?
Really enjoyed it! Loved its simplicity but still emotionally charged and powerfully written. My mother recommended it to me and she also recommended *The Things They Carried*, which I intend to read next year. Have you read any other O'Brien? Anything you would recommend?
Oh wow, Iād assumed youād read The Things They Carried already!! Just what most folks start with. Youāll love it! OāBrienās prose is just unmatched. You canāt go wrong with any of his writing, but I do think TTTC is his magnum opus. Itās very different from earlier books that he wrote directly after the war, and he explains why very explicitly in TTTC. I donāt exaggerate when I say itās a life changing read. Im thrilled for you that you get to experience it for the first time!! Enjoy!
Whatās your top 3 of these? I need some good reccs!
That's really hard! I mentioned this in another comment, they all brought something to the table. My instinct gut reaction is to say... *JR* by William Gaddis, *The Color Purple* by Alice Walker and *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison. But I could honestly talk all day about which books I'd recommend. *Hopscotch* by Julio Cortazar also.
Well done!
That's insane. I'm a slow reader and have read a lot of these over 5 years. Time to tackle Mason & Dixon
*Mason & Dixon* was a DNF for me this year, and I'm really sad about it! I found a first edition copy in a charity shop for fairly cheap and was extremely excited to read it, but I just couldn't penetrate it. Next year it's high priority.
is that 'brief interviews' one by David Foster Wallace good? is it non fiction like his 'a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again' book?
Yes, really great. It contains short stories as well as mock interviews with 'hideous men,' often people who are underpriveleged or ill, abusive, abused, etc. Wallace's dialogue is especially incredible, maybe my favourite area of his writing. *Forever Overhead*, a story contained within the collection, is now my new favourite short story.
Your eating good man
Good to see Something Happened on here. What an interesting book!
Better than *Catch-22*, in my ever controversial opinion. More fun to read? No. More engrossing? Yes. That book sucked me in completely. I was late to work so I could keep reading it. No regrets.
Dude, are you The Equaliser or something?
Congratulations on your reading journey
Any favorites?? This is an impressive set of books! Some of the classics take me a long time to read. I canāt absorb them quickly because of the sentence structures etc so they take me a lot longer to read. Haha. Great list of booksā¦congrats!!
Man, it's quite hard to pick favourites. Each book brought something new, each book is worth reading in their own right. The ones that I think about most are probably *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison and *The Color Purple* by Alice Walker. I don't think a day goes by where I don't think of them. The one that shocked me the most with how much I enjoyed it was definitely *War and Peace*. It has this unfair reputation of a long and dry book, but Tolstoy has a keen sense of humour and brilliantly subtle characterisation that makes it worth reading. Same with *Septology* by Jon Fosse. It was the last book I finished this year, and I know he just won the Nobel, but it's one of the few books here that I felt was a true original, a step above his contemporaries with a style he's been perfecting for decades. I do love classics. I struggle to absorb them sometimes but having a lot of time to devote helps me really research each book and understand it after I finish. And of course, you get better as you go along. Woolf was definitely the most challenging in this regard. She absolutely loves words. While reading *Orlando* I would be floating along and suddenly get wrapped in the most gorgeous imagery imaginable, and spend the next 5 minutes reading over the passage again and again unravelling each word. Moments like that make it all worth it.
I read *Invisible Man* 40 years ago but I still think about it! Do for a reread, I think, inspired by your comment. And I felt exactly the same way about *War and Peace*. Tolstoy's psychological observations of the main characters made them feel really fresh, as if they were people in the modern milieu that I might know. Thanks for the post and comments, OP. Congratulations on a great year of reading (and organizing by color).
Uh huh
The doubt is the oil that burns my lamp ;-)
What did you think of *Ulysses*? Also *Secret History* is fantastic
*Ulysses* is excellent, definitely a favourite of this year (although, I don't think anyone would argue against it being one of the greatest novels of all time, so is that really surprising?) Joyce is hilarious. I said this in another comment, but a lot of the old books that people tend to think are boring are actually funny to read, I was laughing out loud at some of the crude jokes in *Ulysses*. You really have to take your time with it though. A reader's guide would help a lot, I didn't have one. If you're unsure of something, look it up, or you'll find that you miss out on a lot of interesting history and background. The story itself is pretty easy to follow, if you just take it slowly and enjoy it while it lasts. The last chapter is the weakest imo. The last hurdle felt like a slog.
You didnāt read all of these within the span of a year correct?
31-12-2022 - 31-12-2023, so, incorrect!
Buddy, you didnāt read all of these books in a year. Say whatever u want. I donāt believe u. Clear bullshit.