I just thought my roommate was particularly well-read when she reeled off the English books she’d read. It turns out most Russian students have know their Dickens, the Brontes, Jane Austen, Shakespeare. They actually read them in their spare time. I know… Interestingly, George Orwell doesn’t feature very highly in Russia. But it put me to shame when they started asking me whether I preferred the works of Chekhov or Dostoyevsky…