I devoured AoCP in three months, Finnegans Wake took a year and a half. I have a compulsive need to finish reading what I start and it just sucked the life out of me. Ulysses is a masterpiece, but I wouldn't recommend Wake to anyone. There are still some gems but most of it is simply painful to read.
-- Lines from Wake that actually make sense:
It was folded by cunning, sealed by crime, uptied by a harlot, undone by a child. It was life but was it fair? It was free but was it art?
Oh I know. I just thought it was hilarious to see Finnegans Wake being described as so impenetrable that even cryptologists at the NSA couldn't crack it.