This idea was inspired by Yiyun Li’s Twitter Book Club which read War and Peace in 85 days in 2020.

In keeping with the democratic spirit of Ulysses, we have decided to drop the branding in our virtual book club.  Power to the people!

At 7am on each day of the project, starting on June 1^st, a message will be posted on our website, emailed, FaceBooked and Tweeted from the #Ulysses80 BookClub 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 our website. 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 1^st, then, by BloomsDay on June 16^th 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 the #Ulysses80 Book Club 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 and (dare it be said?!) boring sections.   

The last Episode, [number 18, ‘Penelope’], Molly’s wonderful 8 sentence soliloquy, will take about 10 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 19^th the date of publication of the real letter on foot and mouth by Joyce’s friend Blackwood Price alluded to in Chapter 2, Nestor.  In Ulysses, everything is connected and disconnected….