I appreciate it in a very simple way. I am very much average IQ (the absolute top of the bell curve!). I read a lot. For a while, I read 120 books per year. Now

I appreciate it in a very simple way. I am very much average IQ (the absolute top of the bell curve!). I read a lot. For a while, I read 120 books per year. Now, with a daughter and a full time job, I read maybe 2 books a month. Once in a while you will meet someone that will say Ulysses is their most favourite book. About half the time, that is literary posing. I actually forced myself to read Finnegans wake (which as we all understand is easily translatable) in a language that isn't my own (english). I did it for two reasons. The less important one is that I can actually say I have read it without giving up. Giving up is very much in my character, so it was about proving myself to myself. The second reason is very childish. Sometimes you meet literary posers. You know them when you meet them. They never left the teenage phase of identifying with geniouses just by being able to namedrop them. It has given me great pleasure about 3 or 4 times to be able to say "Ulysses is a nice book, but it is but a mere warming up for a greater piece. Which of the interpretations do you find most in line with your own". Childish. I know.