1. I spent large parts of a high school summer vacation forcing myself to read a paper copy of a Hebrew translation of Crime and Punishment. It was boring and I'd have stopped much earlier, if I didn't want to prepare for the next year's literature classes.

   For the record, I read and completed some long books in both Hebrew and English which I found more interesting and captivating, and which I wasn't forced to read for class. I also struggled less with some other assigned texts (e.g. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis or J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye ).

2. That put aside - analysing it in class, after the summer vacation, was fun.

3. In retrospect, I could tell that Raskolnikov is described as having clinical depression.

4. At least one friend of mine did enjoy reading it, and found it captivating.

5. On a different page, I compare Crime and Punishment to Little Red Riding Hood and conclude that the latter was far more influential, successful, and better written. (Even though I have some reservations about its message.)

6. I'm not going to read Crime and Punishment again willingly.

7. Zehu Zeh's reflection on Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" - (from the Israeli Educational Television; in Hebrew) was incredibly funny and true.

So: should you read it? On one hand, this is the kind of book that every modern intellectual is expected to read. On the other hand, its Signal to noise ratio is extremely low and it is not compliant with TL;DR / TL;DW / TL;DL. It is possible that reading the wikipedia page or a different summary will be adequate (assuming you are not forced to read it in class).

And take my advice at your own risk. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces. 😉