Stopped on Proteus, 14 March

Third attempt. Got further than the previous two and stopped in the same chapter, which suggests the problem is structural and that the structure is me.

I want to be fair to it. The first two chapters are readable and funny and I liked Buck Mulligan enormously as a specific and recognisable sort of appalling man. Then Stephen goes for a walk on the beach and thinks, and I found I was moving my eyes down the page without taking in anything at all, which is my signal to stop.

I've read the arguments for pushing on. I've read the ones that say you don't need to catch the references. I believe them both. I still couldn't do it, and I have decided that reading a book while consulting a second book about the book is a different activity from reading.

Five. That's a rating for my experience and not a verdict on the thing itself; if you finished it, well done, sincerely, and I would like to be told what happens.

There is a plan for a fourth attempt. The plan is the audiobook, in the car, where skimming isn't available to me.