It took almost 18 months (with about 3 months of not reading it at all, Oxen of the Sun almost did me in). I read it in 5 page increments, while reading annotated notes along with it, reading online summations of sections, and listening to a bbc produced reading of the book. With all of this, I can safely say that I have but scratched the surface. There are endless depths hidden within the pages of this book. I read something to the affect that Ulysses contains all of human existence and experience. That is truer than can be known without diving into it yourself. Few things in this world can truly inspire awe....James Joyce's Ulysses is one of those things.