I read The Dead and Portrait. But when it came to Ulysses it felt like I was aspiring to read it. Too much work and too little pleasure
No one ever quotes Joyce. They allude to him. Maybe they're just further along that aspirational trail.
1. Don't be afraid to skip parts or start from the middle and jump around
2. Don't worry too much about it all fitting together - each small part is enjoyable even if you're not following that larger structure.
Basically open a page at random and revel in it. It's potentially a lot of fun to read.
I'll hasten to add that I personally haven't followed this advice. I gave my copy away before hearing it.
Ulysses is a hard slog. That should be expected from someone who wrote one page per day. IIRC correctly Ulysses took 7 years, so Joyce apparently wasn't even writing every day. I read Sometimes a Great Notion soon after, and enjoyed Kesey's 3 months of effort more.
That doesn't necessarily speaks to the quality of one's work.
'I fear those big words, which make us unhappy.'
are two I've seen quoted.