Similarly I read Ulysses when I was very young and Stuart Gilbert's excellent analysis. Also there was quite a good film with Milo O'Shea as Bloom and Maurice Roeve(Vincent In Tutti Frutti) as Stephen D. The actual narrative is simple, the ay of telling is sometimes confusing, even mystifying.

Saying Ulysses is pretentious and badly written is a bit like saying Picasso and Kandinsky couldn't paint pictures and Eliot's poem's don't make sense.

Start from the position that this is what a man of immense talent chose to do with his life. There was no money in it. Surely if you patronise a folk internet page, you know of many artists like that.

I'm not sure I go along with all that stuff, about walk the streets of Dublin and Ulysses and it's people will walk round every street corner and meet you. Theres a certain universality and you meet people like that round every street corner in the world.

Also the truths about life and sexuality make uncomfortable reading as you get older and you recognise how true they are.

Still on one level it's love song to us all, and of course to Dublin.

In answer to your original question on Bloomsday - I'll but myself a new copy of Ulysses, mine fell apart with rough treatment and overuse.

And at some point in the day, I'll turn westward and thank God for sending us a little island which produced oscar wilde, James Joyce, Van the Man, Christy Moore and oh yes my Mum's family.