Collected Tales looks pretty good - I will have to track it down. I've recently started to get into russian literature (particularly from around that time) so it would seem to be my cup of tea.

I'm readinLolita by Vladimir Nabokov.... I have been meaning to read it for ages and finally got round to it. Its impressive to see that Nabokov style has retained a contemporary feel - and despite its age it's still pretty disturbing stuff.

Lolita is great isn't it? I was always a fan of the Kubrick movie and a couple years ago a friend finally convinced me to read the book. I like the book because its such an exercise in repulsion and attraction. I mean, for all his most obvious foibles, Humbert is a strangely appealing character.

I'm all about the Russians right now myself. I had been trying to read the Constance Garnett translation of Crime and Punishment but found it to be super dry. Then I read an article in the New Yorker about the translation team of Pevear and Volokhonsky and immediately went out and bought their translation of Crime and Punishment. I was hooked - and read The Idiot and Brothers Karamazov right after that. After Gogol, I've got Anna Karenina and War and Peace line up. I don't know if you've read their translations - but I would recommend them. They seem to be able to produce much more fluid and visual readings.

Just finished "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. One of the themes that run through the book is the importance of meaningful work. Inspirational!

Craig - once you find Pevear and Volokhonsky you will never go back - They recently completed Tolstoys "War & Peace" - Unfortunately its not released on Everymans - cant believe I slogged through the Maude and Maude translation. I pretty much only touch P & V stuff now.

Gogol is incredible - the Ukranian Tales are surreal, gothic and enthralling - I found the petersburg tales a bit unexciting by comparison - except "The Nose"

I love Dostoevsky - he's one of the few authors I read where by I feel I need a period of digestion to comprehend the many facets of the work - Im sure I would get more from Brothers K the second time around.

Im currently reading Demons/The Possessed/The Devils by Dostoevsky - its fantastic..... However its almost over so I think I may follow my dark 19th century political satire with some modern transgressional french fiction - namely Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden.....

There is one contemporary Russian writer, whom I've discovered recently and enjoy reading a lot, - Andrei Makine. I have now read a few of his novels, and I would recommend "A Life's Music" and "The Woman Who Waited" in translations by Geoffrey Strachan.
I was tempted to put forward this suggestion by the books, mentioned in the comments above. They are among my all time favourites, particularly Gogol and Nabokov.

I am reading the Wind up bird from Haruki Murakami, it is a very mysterious story, is based contemporary in Japan, urban alienation, relationships and the paranormal. I am completely submerged into it,but this time savoring the book in a slow pace, somehow the book obliges me to do this.