and they say lauren killed herself...

Today I was re-reading the first scene of James Joyce's Ulysses. I was rendered speechless once again. Such a vibrant work, it oozes with a life of its own. I felt intimately connected with the characters almost immediately, as if they were real people that I knew. Usually, when I'm in the process of reading a book, I feel like I give life to the characters through the act of reading. That is, when I put down the book, the characters just stop living, stop existing. When I pick it up again, they resume. That is not so with Joyce. Ulysses is perhaps the only book that has made me feel like I was peripheral to it. I am rendered a mere voyeur, and denied my fanciful notion of being the director or creator. What fun! Only Joyce can do this. And perhaps Dostoevsky. Ok ok...maybe Faulkner as well. But that's all! I promise.