I devoured AoCP in three months, Finnegans Wake took a year and a half. I have a compulsive need to finish reading what I start and it just sucked the life out of me. Ulysses is a masterpiece, but I wouldn't recommend Wake to anyone. There are still some gems but most of it is simply painful to read.

-- Lines from Wake that actually make sense:

It was folded by cunning, sealed by crime, uptied by a harlot, undone by a child. It was life but was it fair? It was free but was it art?

Sleep, where in the waste is the wisdom?

Shake eternity and lick creation.

Erning his breadth to the swelt of his proud.