The Book Booth is a weekly feature at The Political Carnival, relating news, notes, and reflections from the world of books and publishing. SeattleDan, along with his wife, SeattleTammy, are operators of both an on-line bookstore, as well a brick and mortar in small town Washington State. Both have been in the book business since shortly after the Creation, or close to 6000 years now.

Is it me, or did February go by fast? I know about the 28 day thing, but it still seemed to zoom by in a flash. And here we are, March 2013. Spring, Baseball season and heading into the gardens is just around the corner. And, of course, like any other month, it is a good time to curl up with a good book. Maybe two.

The National Book Critics Circle announced its selection of the best for 2012. I have read some of Robert Caro’s on-going biography of Lyndon Johnson, and it is well worth checking out. I haven’t read the Ben Fountain novel, but I’ll have to move it up on the nightstand. The list of winners with short bios is here.

More good news as this week Penguin Books announced that Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel, Bleeding Edge, which takes place in New York City between the dot.com bust and 9/11, will be published in September. Pynchon is one of our favorite writers, so we are looking forward to the book’s publication. The Guardian has the story.

Here’s your chance to win a million bucks! Just solve a math problem and the money can be yours. Ian Stewart, author of Visions of Infinity, explains what the problem is via Publishers Weekly. And admittedly, I had a lot of trouble following this one.

I read many of Italo Calvino’s books years ago, though not his Italian Folktales. But the good folks at Open Culture has this cool video of actor John Turturro reading one of the tales, an Italian re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.

For those of you going through Downton Abbey withdrawl, a new series debuted this week on PBS, Parade’s End. Playwright TomStoppard has adapted the novels written by Ford Maddox Ford for the television screen. Ford is an important if somewhat neglected early Modernist writer, best known for his novel The Good Soldier.

If you are at loose ends this year, without any idea of what you want to read, Emma Brockes of the Guardian profiled this interesting idea. It seems that Matt Zahn read the best selling books as listed by Publishers Weekly for all the hundred years between 1913 and now. A bit daunting, not just in scope, but also in the amount of crap you’d have to plow through.

Language evolves. And often it does so because we hear things they way we want to hear them. Mental Floss has a list of seven common words that were different in times past.

Of course we could invent our own new words as that old neologist, William Shakespeare did. Flavorwire has a list of the ten contemporary novels inspired by the Bard himself.

Alas, Shakespeare himself didn’t keep a diary. But many writers do. Again from Flavorwire, ten writers on the importance of keeping a journal.

A most excellent weekend to everyone. Enjoy your reading and let us know what books are on your nightstand.