The shinily relaunched Millions takes on a particularly ticklish question: What one novel would you assign to a student who might never read another?

• James Marcus on Nicholson Baker on Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year.

• Bookride is on an interesting run about the cultural differences between anglophone and French antiquarian bookdealers: the French have "higher condition standards than their grubby roastbeef counterparts", apparently, but salon culture makes signed editions cheaper.

• Mark Sarvas is reading the New York Times stylebook (I am a total sucker for this kind of thing).

• Night Hauling adds some gracenotes to an already overwhelming translation of Carlo Emilio Gadda.

• Missionaries: still highly influential in linguistics.

• When books get bedbugs.