I haven't read it yet, but I'm proud to say I now own a copy of Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich". I've heard lots and lots of good things about it, but it's an unbelievably rare thing to find anything by any of the old Russians except their mega-hits. I think I almost shit my pants the first time I saw a copy of a Dostoyevsky book that wasn't Crime and Punishment. Another great issue of thrift stores is the dreaded abridged copy, it took me over a year to find an unabridge version of War and Peace, and while I eventually caved and bought one new, I'd been looking for just as long for an unabridged Anna Karenina. Luckilly, as the cover informs me, my copy of "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is complete and unabridge. Thank god, because all you can ever find of those not-even-a-hundred page books is the abridged copies!

Anyway, I love Tolstoy. I realize that's like a fan of pop music saying they love the Beatles, but still, I love Tolstoy. I first read Anna Karenina in high school and remember being totally engrossed the whole way through. It took me a while to get my hands on War and Peace, and once I had it, it took me a couple readings to really absorb most of it, but I can see why it's hailed as the masterpeice it is.. It isn't my favorite on a personal level, but it's easilly the bes book I've read, just in terms of epicness and "wow" factor.

Any other Tolstoy fans here? I think it's kind of interesting, because virtually everyone acknowledges Tolstoy as one of the best writers of all time, but most people you talk to haven't actually bitten down and worked through either of his great works.