James Joyce’s Ulysses tops Good Reads’ list of “novels that made you work the hardest,” but that title hasn’t deterred people around the world from annually celebrating the novel and its protagonist, Leopold Bloom.

Bloomsday, which occurs on June 16—to coincide with June 16, 1904, the day that the entirety of the novel’s events take place—brings literary enthusiasts together to read parts of the acclaimed novel, discuss its deeper truths, and nerd out in the company of other Joyceans.

This weekend, for the fifth year in a row, the Bloomsday Marathon Reading is happening on Upshur Street NW. Hosted by Petworth Citizen and Loyalty Books, the event will offer D.C.-area booklovers 32 hours of non-stop modernist, early twentieth-century prose read aloud.

The first marathon reading in D.C. occurred in 1990 at Kelly’s Irish Times near Union Station but stopped some time ago. Local restaurateur and businessman Paul Ruppert used to attend the marathons and decided to revive the D.C. tradition in 2015 by hosting the marathon in the Reading Room of the Petworth Citizen, his restaurant and bar.

This year, the marathon will be held jointly at the Petworth Citizen and its affiliated bookstore, Loyalty Books, making use of both spaces.

Bloomsday is celebrated enthusiastically around the world, but D.C. is one of the few places, if not the only place, where the book is read aloud in its entirety.

“The huge undertaking of reading it from first page to final page is very unique to D.C. and pretty rare in general,” says Loyalty Books owner Hannah Oliver Depp.

Depp thinks it’s because of D.C.’s bustling literary scene and the overwhelming “book love” in the city. After all, the city recently had its first-ever indie bookstore crawl.

“A lot of people get run off from Joyce because of the cultural criticism around [Ulysses] that has thrived off of talking about how difficult Joyce is as opposed to the pleasures of reading it,” says Depp.

For Depp, reading the complex, winding chapters of Ulysses out loud takes some of the edge off, making the novel less intimidating.

“The rhythms and the different types of voices in Ulysses are so much more clearly heard and enjoyed when it’s read out loud,” she says.

But Bloomsday is about much more than just celebrating Joyce’s canonical literary work—according to Depp, it’s a “sacred holiday” for book nerds and fans of Irish culture.

The holiday spirit has also spilled into the drink menu at Petworth Citizen.

To ring in Bloomsday, the bar will feature a special Ulysses-themed cocktail and sherry wine menu from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Friday and Saturday night, crafted by mixologist Chantal Tseng, who’s behind the bar’s long-running Literary Cocktail nights.

“You don’t need to have read all of Ulysses before or be a Joyce expert. It’s a friendly open space, no one is getting any litmus test to prove what a Joycean they are,” says Depp.

Organizers are still looking for volunteers to read chapters of the book, and recommend interested folks to email info@petworthcitizen.com.

And Petworth isn’t the only neighborhood where people can find Bloomsday celebrations. If 32 hours is too much, you can head to the original location of Politics and Prose on Connecticut Avenue NW for a mini-marathon reading from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on June 16.

The Bloomsday Marathon Reading will take place from noon on June 15 through 8 p.m. on June 16 at 827-829 Upshur St. NW.