The day all the laws of nature that guide behavior have been discovered, human beings will no longer be responsible for their actions. This is the fear that made a 19th-century classic like Fyodor Dostoevsky –an engineer by training– strongly criticized the rationalization in Notes from Underground (in Catalan, by Angle Editorial, translated by Miquel Cabal). Published in 1864 in Russian, it is a novel about a frustrated and furious civil servant who dedicates himself to plotting impossible revenge and, at the same time, offers a harsh portrait of the challenges of the time and the future prospects of a society in crisis. Among the merits of Dostoevsky's book is a visionary note: the prediction of the algorithms that today decide what we read, what we listen to, or even with whom we should have sexual relations. Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky feared that all human actions would end up being mathematically computed: "Everything will be calculated and established with such precision that there will be no more action and adventure in the world."

In the history of literature there are works that require the reader to dedicate a generous amount of time to them, either because they add up to many pages, because the proposal is remarkably demanding or because length and complexity go hand in hand. There are examples from all periods and nationalities and for all tastes. Summer is the ideal season of the year to dare to make risky readings that can become transforming experiences.