/lit/ - Literature

Should I read a book entirely through once before reading secondary literature and analyses? In what cases should I read analyses before, or during an initial reading of a work? And are there any particular ways you recommend going about this?

what are the smartest fiction books ever written?

>>11209743
Leopold Bloom is not Jewish. Nowhere in Ulysses is it clearly stated and proven that Leopold Bloom is actually Jewish. Other characters refer to him as a Jew but they are mistaken, they refer to him as such because they view him as an outsider. It is even stated that Bloom was baptized by the Catholic church on three separate occasions. This myth of Bloom being Jewish is seen at the highest rungs of academia with self-proclaimed "world renowned" professors perpetuating this myth.

I'm completely new to literature. In the past year I read Odyssey, Hamlet, Dubliners, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, all to prepare for Ulysses. I am reading Ulysses and analyzing it line by line with help from Frank Delaney's Re:Joyce podcast and several analysis books (I'll read the episode/chapter, then read the analyses of that episode). I'm hoping that diving deep into Ulysses would give me a strong fundamental understanding of literature as a whole.

Is this a good idea or a retarded idea?