Yeah that's pretty much what I did with most of them, you'd get those York Notes books and they would get you through no problem.my dad always advised me not to read the books cos it would only confuse me. just learn what you are supposed to think about them.
Giving Ulysses a crack. Got stuck on the Shakespeare library dialogue a week ago and haven't picked it up since.
one of the first times I went to London a girl tried to chat me up coz I was reading songs of experience and innocence or whatever it's called, some edition with the carvings or paintings in or whatever they are, on the tube. it was absolutely amazing. nothing remotely like that has ever happened to me again