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James Joyce is one of my very favorite writers.

I'm about 300 pages into Finnegans Wake right now, and it is very tough sledding. But I'm finding it worth the effort. This is my third attempt to read it. I seem to have finally broken through and it is making more "sense" to me finally.

I read Ulysses about ten years ago and loved it.

From an atheist perspective, I enjoy his work because I find it very humanistic. He makes a strong connection between mythology and everyday events and feelings -- which is why Joseph Campbell was such a great admirer of his.

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Joycephiliac here.

Finnegans Wake is indeed a "book of many attempts." I never even tried to read it sequentially, I usually open it at random, read a few dozens pages, add notes and post-its, and put it to rest for a while.

If you're bilingual, bouncing between translations can be a great experience (the French Lavergne's translation is a masterpiece of its own.)
A couple of my favorite quotes: Television kills telephony in brothers broil and Wipe your glosses with what you know.

It's been about thirty years since I read FW (twice.) Probably getting about time to do it again (like I do with One Hundred Years of Solitude and Huckleberry Finn.)

FW and Ulysses are the only Joyce I've read. What order would you recommend reading the earlier works?
If you're an 'evolutionist', I suggest reading Stephen Hero before the Portrait (as I did.)

If you didn't read it already, you might start with Ellmann's biography of Joyce. A must read.
I've heard great things about the Ellmann. It's always been on my "one of these days" lists.

Where should Dubliners, Exiles, Giacomo Joyce, and the poetry fit in? Or should I just assume that basic chronology is the plan to follow?
If you've read FW and Ulysses already, besides the ones I listed I'd say you can read the other novels and short stories in any order you see fit. I haven't read all the poetry - yet.
Ulysses has proven to be my Waterloo, I've finished Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest, but have yet to get through Ulysses...I'm aiming for Bloom's Day of this year...but that's what I said last year. I've read Portrait and Dubliners and enjoyed loved them both.

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