Edmund White chooses his top 10 New York books. I love that he chooses Amis’ Money. Of another book on his list, he writes, “I can think of no other novel that is so agreeable and so devoid of incident.” . . . Levi Stahl has a smart consideration of opening lines in novels, and heretically (but convincingly) says Anna Karenina would have benefited from something different. . . . I recently linked to an appreciation of Barbara Comyns. Now, John Self reviews one of her books, an “eccentric, charming, ambiguous little gem.” . . . George Orwell had some experience with — and some choice words for — people who shop at used bookstores. (Something I happily do myself.) . . . Critic, author, editor, and master anthologizer John Gross died this week at 75. . . . Patrick Brown says the new book by the brains at basketball blog Free Darko is “a work of literature that happens to be about the NBA.” . . . A newly published edition of the Bible includes excerpts of C.S. Lewis’ work throughout. . . . On their new show Portlandia, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney fame) ask, “did you read that?”