I do like the book but I can't say I understand what I'm reading but all I could say was, it was a crazy book to read once in your life and isn't a book meant to be understand but rather to listen to. I do enjoy the 30 hours audiobooks and I wouldn't survive through this book to the end without the dramatization. However, I can understand the beauty of words and reading this book is like reading while taking LSD, but I let the words flow through me and I do think there are good chapters among the dense gibberish in churn. 
 If you want to read this book, I recommend you to acclimatize to the earlier "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" or "Dubliners". I've read Odyssey many many times and I do think that Joyce tried to write around the mythology and themes but more often than not, the literary reference isn't necessary. Its just a representation of a theme rather than an actual reference. 
 But I was surprised by this book. Seriously, explicit, foul, hateful then sometimes sweet, lovely, musical and humorous. If you're not reading for literature requirement, maybe you should take more time to this book and explore the multiple narrative and stream of consciousness. I do think Joyce wrote stream of consciousness in a way that it was unique only to him. While there are good moments in it and the only part that I can understand by myself was when the characters started to spout out Victorian pseudoscience babble. The confidence of someone trying to be scientifically intellectual. A for effort.