A press release included with Sam Lipsyte’s forthcoming novel, The Ask, gets Mark Athitakis on the subject of “comic novels”.

• Emma Straub wants to know if John Updike’s Rabbit trilogy is a classic.

• Stealing from bookstores.

• Reason #21 we love New York: “Because we fight over poetry“

• If the Virtual Victorian is excited about the Sherlock Holmes film, it’s gotta be good.

• William Faulkner’s relationship with Meta Carpenter

• Three Guys One Book love Zadie Smith.

Our hometown

• Pictures from “the blizzard”.

• Rolling hard at the Brooklyn Fishing Derby.

Sex stuff.

• Salon asks if sex addiction is real?

• Sexting is totally okay.