I recently finished "The Hard Life" by Flann O Brian (Brian O'Nolan), it's a really bizarre yet captivating novella set in Ireland at the turn of the century (1900). It charts the adolescense of a young man in Dublin, and his brother and father, I wouldn't want to ruin the plot, it's odd and is riddled with criticism of the Irish education system, the Catholic Church. I picked up another of his books called "The Third Policeman", released posthumously (I think they found the book in his house after he'd died and got it published). Apparently he used to write in to the local newspaper pretending to be two different people, argueing with himself about different topics in the public opinions section, but they only figured out it was him after he died and they checked his house. I would definitely recommend The Hard Life if you enjoy odd fiction, it's told really well, I think you can find most of his work online for fairly cheap.
edit - RE the Russian literature posts, I read Crime and Punishment a number of years ago and loved it, I tried reading The Karamazov Brothers (sp?) but couldn't get through it. Not Russian but I also tried reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K Dick, but struggled again. Maybe soon I'll be able to get through it, my attention span and ability to concentrate is awful! But reading books definitely helps me rebuild it somewhat