It's Saint Patrick's day, so what better time to consider the celebrated Irish author Frank Delaney. His website features his superb observations on literature and a line by line analysis of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. In a series of very enjoyable podcasts Delany makes Ulysses accessible to all. Who says you can't get educational resources of the highest quality for free on the internet! --

Writes Delaney:

"Re: Joyce! On the international literary feast day of Bloomsday, June 16, we launched a podcast to commemorate James Joyce's mighty novel, "Ulysses", the action of which took place in 18 hours of June 16, 1904. Now, every week, here on the website, you'll find a five-minute mini-essay from me designed to take you through this extraordinary novel. Ulysses is on every list of the greatest books ever written and it's on every list of books that readers begin but never finish. Even though it runs to some 375,000 words,I mean to go through the text sentence by sentence if I have to, in order to convey the full brilliance of this novel - and the enjoyment to be had from it. So I'll be podcasting for some time to come! One follower has already called this exercise "the people's Ulysses." It's such an absorbing book, it's got diamond mines of references, it's so compassionate, so tender, so moving, so funny - and most of us never know that, because most of us have long been daunted by it. No need to be afraid any more - that is, if you make a habit of listening to these podcasts."

Find the introduction to the Frank Delaney series of podcasts on Ulysses here.