Writer and friend of the blog, Bill Pearse, and I were touching on James Joyce the other day in the context of one of Bill’s posts over at pinklightsabre. Dubliners, specifically. Something he said reminded me of the end of the last story in that sublime collection, “The Dead.”

Later, when I couldn’t find my old paperback, I landed on this online edition, which offers a clickable table of contents and highly readable text, unlike so many web-based longreads. It’s a very book-like design and gives you the experience of reading the actual book instead of a computer page with too-narrow margins. Nothing’s more tiring than tracking a sentence all the way across your browser and back. Especially when it’s a James Joyce sentence. You can also increase the font size if you’re so inclined.

I don’t read Joyce that often anymore, but when I do it’s…