Just buy a used copy and keep it around the house. It’s a difficult book but not that bad. The hard parts are the stuff about turn of the century Irish politics which no one outside of Ireland really thinks about too much (which you may be thinking is a ridiculous detail to focus on a book, but bear in mind Joyce was trying to paint an accurate picture of Dublin at the time), there is also a huge cast of characters to keep track of and almost all of them have considerable depth, and there are admittedly some parts which are perhaps to experimental for their own good or have dated a bit poorly as literary experiments but the vast majority of the book is absolutely lovely. It’s a near perfect book and only one chapter for me doesn’t work (Oxen in the Sun) but the whole thing really is a peak literary experience which only gets better with a reread.

it’s a lot more manageable if you read his books in order starting with Dubliners. Ulysses is not exactly a sequel but reading through his work chronologically kind of prepares you for his eccentricities. just don’t consult reading guides or appendixes too much because that sort of stuff will just kind of ruin it.