I read it very recently. It took me quite a while--maybe six-seven weeks? I allowed myself to read other stuff at the same time too, though, which may not have been a good idea but it helped save my sanity! I was glad to have finally read it. I'm going to Dublin in a month, no, not to stalk to U2, but to find out if Europe is a place where I really do want to live, or if I just think it is. So I'm glad to have read the great Dublin classic. I dunno...I really liked parts of it, and others were just boring, frustrating or annoying. I think I liked the earlier sections better. In the later sections I sometimes felt like he was really toying with the reader, just trying out the craziest possible ties to see how far he could go. But some of it was most evocative and really brought you into the mind of the characters. However, I think I enjoyed Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners more. Haven't read Finnegans Wake, probably never will! I do sort of wish I had read more about the structure of Ulysses before I plunged in, because apparently it is very carefully structured and I think I missed a lot of that! I'm glad, though, that I waited till after going through university to read it, because I think I understood a whole lot more of the references.
That's pretty funny that your employers would give you a day off for Bloomsday!