The Most Challenging Book You’ve Ever Read
byu/MadMaxine666 inbooks
tomchaps
I met a guy in 1992 in St. Petersburg (Russia), who had taught himself English by reading the liner notes to old rock-n-roll records. He had a Elvis-style pompadour, but was more of a Carl Perkins fan.
The first actual book he read was Finnegans Wake. He just got a dictionary, went at it word-by-word, and just let it wash over him. Very, very slowly. He claimed to have loved it.
ej_21
one of my favorite recent stories was the book club that spent almost three decades reading finnegans wake: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/12/california-venice-book-club-finngeans-wake-28-years
flibadab
I took both an undergraduate and a graduate course on Finnegans Wake (different universities), and I loved it. Both professors emphasized that you can’t possible get everything in the Wake, but you can definitely enjoy it.