New Reading Project: Homer's The Odyssey & James Joyce's Ulysses

Once at my local public library I ran across a copy of Irish writer James Joyce's enigmatic 1939 book Finnegans Wake...intrigued enough, I checked it out and tried to figure out exactly what the dude was trying to say with stream-of-thought language totally overrunning any semblance of a narrative.  It was quickly clear to me that in order to understand any of it I would have to be well-acquainted, if not fluent, in a number of European languages as well as have a deep background in the continent's culture and history, especially that of Ireland and Britain.  Plus, Finnegans Wake was supposedly based on a real funeral dirge and its lyrics.  Some day I'd like to come back and tackle Joyce's problematic book, but first I thought I'd prepare by reading his much more widely acclaimed novel Ulysses, which came out in 1922.  Like Finnegans Wake, Ulysses is very loosely based on another work: the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey, traditionally attributed to Homer and whose protagonist is also named Ulysses, the Roman designation for Odysseus.  Seeing how I would in all probability otherwise miss out on what Joyce's Ulysses had to convey, I decided to take on Homer's work first...which I've just started, reading of course an English translation from the ancient Greek.  It all should be a very interesting, as well as I'm sure confounding and often frustrating, experience...I'm a little more than halfway through The Odyssey...