Dispatches From The Daily Grind: #1

I've just discovered that I am working in an office full of people who have never heard of James Joyce's Ulysses. And I don't mean that they haven't read it - lots of people haven't read it; I haven't read it yet (it lies atop my bookshelf taunting me: "C'mon, pussy. What's the matter? Ain't got the guts to take me on, huh? Too hard for ya, am I?"); no, they haven't even heard of it.

"Is that something to do with Ulysses S. Grant?" asked an American colleague.

"Er, no. It's one of the most revered novels of the Twentieth Century, if not the entire history of literature."

"Oh... Maybe it was named after Ulysses S. Grant or something?"

"Er, no. It's a reference to Homer's Odyssey... You know, the Greek legend of Troy, the Cyclops, Sirens?"

"Oh... right..."

And this is where I spend most of my life.