January: Best or Worst Timing for Reading Dark Russian Novels

I'm reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and wondering whether January is the best time of year to read such a novel. Is it really in my best interest to read all Raskolnikov's mad, dark thoughts at a time when I'm climbing the walls to go outside, but it's cold and snowy and foggy and bleak out, and has been for days, all of which is slowly driving me insane?

At the same time, though, it doesn't seem like a book one would read for fun in July at the beach, either.