Ulysses80
The Ulysses80 Book Club invites readers from all over the world to revel in Ulysses by reading it together over a span of 80 days.
At 7am on each day of the project starting on June 1st, a message will be emailed as well as posted on its website and social media pages giving the first few words and the last few words of the section to be read that day, together with the line numbers (from the Gutenberg Press edition). The relevant page numbers of several printed editions will be posted on the website as well.
People will be invited to contribute their thoughts, comments and insights about the day’s section using the hashtag #Ulysses80 to curate the conversations. If we start Episode 1, Telemachus, at the Sandycove Martello Tower on June 1st, then, by Bloomsday on June 16th we’ll be towards the middle of Episode 8 Lestrygonians and ‘in’ Davy Byrne’s Pub in time for the famous lunch of a Gorgonzola sandwich with a glass of burgundy. On that day, everyone in Ulysses80 across the globe will be invited to raise a glass together to celebrate reaching the quarterway mark, as we head in towards the more challenging episodes of the book. Having a whole community of fellow readers regularly chipping in their comments and observations will surely help us all through the more obtuse sections.
The last episode “Penelope,” Molly’s wonderful eight-sentence soliloquy, will take about ten days in August when many of us will be on holidays, or at least taking things a bit easier. Day 80, the last day of the journey when we can all say Yes Yes Yes with great relief and celebration, falls on August 19th, the date of publication of the real letter on foot and mouth by Joyce’s friend Blackwood Price alluded to in Episode 2, Nestor. In Ulysses, everything is connected and disconnected…
This journey is for everyone, not just academics. The whole aim of the project to help democratise Ulysses: to bring it to people who thought they would never have the interest, patience or time to read the whole book. Hopefully, readers from all walks of life with all sorts of reading interests – as well as people who read few books – will find lots to please, intrigue, annoy, and stimulate them during the 80 days via its virtual chats and conversation at Ulysses80. And maybe a whole lot of people will finally get to finish the book so many have dipped in and out of so many times but never got to the end of.
Hodges Figgis (which is referenced in Ulysses) and Books Upstairs are partners in the initiative. They sell several editions of Ulysses as well as many of the recommended resources available to help the average reader negotiate their way through one of the most notoriously difficult books in the English language.
To join Ulysses80 or to find out more, please visit their website at https://ulysses80.ie/. You can also follow along on Facebook and Twitter.