With limited reading time I am slowly savouring Ulysses. I paused before Leopold Bloom’s entrance in Episode 4: Calypso. Without gushing at such an early stage, I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying Ulysses, but if you have read it before you know how extraordinary is Joyce’s prose.
In Episode 3 Stephen is helping a student, Sargent, to comprehend algebra. For a moment he senses an echo of his own boyhood:
Like him was I, these sloping shoulders, this gracelessness. My childhood bends beside me. Too far for me to lay a hand there once or lightly. Mine is far and his secret as our eyes. Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.
Some sections I read over and over to appreciate the writing.
To my good fortune, more advanced Ulysses readers are posting useful thoughts:The solstice in Circe.Daylight and darkness.Ulysses as an act of fiscal responsibility.
Time's Flow Stemmed 
>You've inspired me. I've never managed to read Ulysses properly – the first attempt was a portuguese translation, can you imagine that? Or any other translation for that matter?So I just got a used copy of Portrait of the Artist at Skoob in London and I'm thinking of getting the Notes to Ulysses by Gifford as a companion to Claudia's Great Summer Enterprise.
>Claudia: How anyone but Joyce could translate this incredible book I cannot imagine. Where would a translator begin ?I'm pleased that I read A Portrait as preparation. Although I'm trying not to get too bogged down understanding every allusion, Gifford is useful from time to time for Joycean words that are not in the OED.It is a Summer Enterprise. To do this book justice will take a couple of months. There is no better way to spend that time though.