If Ulysses isn't worth reading

Despite all the controversy and censorship that Ulysses attracted a century ago, people have read it and loved it and reread it and loved it again, and as Joyce said himself, If Ulysses isn't worth reading, then life isn't worth living. Well the exact quote is "If Ulysses isn't fit to read, then life isn't fit to live" but let's not end it there. Life is worth living.

Groundhog Day 2022 is over but it doesn't have to end there. There is no need to step out in front of a truck or pop some toast in a toaster and pop the toaster in the bath tub or jump out of a building. There is still plenty of time to pick up a copy of Ulysses and read it in the centenary year. Why not try and finish it by Bloomsday 2022 for example?

While Joyce's birthday hasn't been celebrated as much as the literary date he created, I think there is plenty of time to start Ulysses and thanks to Wordsworth Editions, you have five chances to win Joyce's collection of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, Dubliners, Finneagan's Wake and of course Ulysses which was published on Groundhog Day 1922.

In the film, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again for an eternity and would have time to have finished Ulysses while learning French, the piano and ice sculpting, you can still put Ulysses on your bucket list as a book to read before you die.

It won't kill you to try Ulysses but it will be a challenge to finish it by Bloomsday for example but even if you don't win one of the five collections on offer. Don't despair, there are many ways to sample Ulysses such as audio books, podcasts, reading groups such as Bloomsday Societies and annotated and abridged versions.

You're unlikely to be able to read Ulysses in a day, unless you are trapped in a time loop that resets each morning at 6AM that is, and it took me 100 days, reading serval pages a day to finally finish it. Life is worth living and Joyce is worth reading and you can always win one of five collections of Joyce's life work, thanks to Wordsworth Editions by sharing selfies and shelfies on The Groundhog Day Challenge Instagram account.

There will be one winner in February, one in March and one in April and May and a final book giveaway for Bloomsday in June.

Put Ulysses on your bucket list even if it is much harder to do than the Ice Bucket Challenge

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