I know I'm late for this particular conversation but .. The Brothers Karamazov is not only my favorite Dostoyevsky but also one of my favorite-ever novels. Crime and Punishment is great as well but feels small-time in comparison. The Idiot was the most difficult of his writing for me to get into (but I haven't read all of his, fer instance, I've started and stopped reading Demons a few times).
Shakespeare? In general I say No, thanks.
Normally I don't like reading poetry at all but I'm reading
knots by R.D. Laing right now. This is some strange but extremely sensible stuff..
