10 Books That Live The NYC Dream

Call it narcissism, but there’s nothing we New Yorkers love more than seeing our fair city depicted on-screen and on the page. Think about every time you were watching Girls, spotted your local coffee shop in the scene, and were immediately flooded with the knowledge that you, too, are a part of this huge, crazy city and its vibrant cultural history.

In an attempt to bottle that magical feeling, we rounded up our favorite NYC stories: 10 books that let the city play itself — inspiration, destruction, badass-itude, and all. From memoirs to short stories to novels, from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back again, these are the titles you need to add to your collection.