2016 marks the 150^th anniversary of “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Now, classic Russian literature isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea but “Crime and Punishment” has been on my Must-Read list for quite some time now. Why? Mostly because of another Russian classic, Anna Karenina.

The film adaption of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” hit cinemas in 2012 and I was desperate to see it but I never got round to it. Then sometime around Easter last year I found Anna Karenina (the book of course) on one of our very own shelves and I decided to give it a go. Now if you’ve seen the book you’ll know it’s pretty big and once you dive inside you realise it’s REALLY big. The book is split into 8 parts which all have about 35 chapters which is basically like 8 whole books all in one big massive book, or maybe I’m just using that as an excuse for not finishing it yet… A year and a half later I’m not even nearly finished but I will finish it (I’m very determined.) I even got my own copy for Christmas and returned the library copy to its shelf where it belongs, this particularly excited Mrs Vennall who thought I’d finally finished it only to find out that I was nowhere near close to even the middle – never mind the end!

This, however, doesn’t explain my wish to read “Crime and Punishment.” The real reason I want to read it is because I saw the play of it not too long ago and I really enjoyed it, although slightly strange and depressing it’s an intriguing story. I just chose to plough my way through Anna Karenina first (which I’m enjoying despite my snail like reading pace.) My advice is to give “Crime and Punishment” a go before you delve into any Russian literature with a page count of nearly 1000.