2 ms·

I'm not sure why you should buy so many books, given that you know you are not finishing them. I can understand novels, and story books and stuff like that. But

• dkuntz2 13y ago
  I disagree on your technical books point. Things may change, but most of the technical books I buy (I can't really speak for anyone else), and those in the post, are, for the most part, going to be relevant for years to come. Most of the books are fairly old, and based on the titles they're generic knowledge, even if they implement something using a specific language that may die, the ideas and concepts they contain are still usable. Even the "Work Shelf", which contains the most specific books, probably won't go out of date.
• cafard 13y ago
  The more that you know about the setting of Ulysses, the more sense it makes; yet with very little context you can get a great deal from it. Early on, a character remarks that Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of minds that have lost their balance; if Joyce aspired to supplant Shakespeare there, he did pretty well, which is to say that there is a thriving Joyce industry. I haven't read much of its production, but I recall Hugh Kenner's Joyce's Voices as pretty good. If you haven't already done so, read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners, for many characters from both crop up in Ulysses.