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.

As all good things must pass, we bid a fond adieu to the great athletes from around the world who competed in this year’s Olympic games. Always a great array of feats and achievements that will be talked about for a long time.

On to the Books. While last week’s news of Jonah Lehrer’s fabrications in his book on Dylan saddened me because it seemed an act of desperation, I am pleased by that the Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson, never known as a bastion of liberal thought, has pulled “historian” David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies from it’s list. Making up stuff about the founding fathers to suit your political agenda is a huge no-no. And pulling the book from circulation is not an act of censorship.

I mentioned last week that NPR was doing a poll to tabulate a top 100 young adult novel list. The results are now in and not surprisingly, recent titles dominated the top two spots, with Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. It is a good list and many of these titles can well by appreciated by adults as well.

For those of you looking for meaty, substantial, and, well, hard books, Publishers Weekly has this list for you to peruse. I can’t say I’ve read all of them, and somehow dont think I’ll ever get to the Heidegger.

Poetry can sure make for an appetite. From the blog, Eat a Poem, comes an illustrated rendering of William Carlos Williams’ This is Just to Say.

This week we note the passing of art critic and historian, Robert Hughes. His documentary Shock of the New is what documentaries are meant to be. As with Gore Vidal, I’m not sure I’d have liked being his friend. But his writing had passion, and his book adaptation of Shock is very much worth reading.

Moving on to the books into film department, Flavorwire has this list of ten books that many people only know from the movies. And some of the movies even resembled their literary predecessors.

It seems that there is too much Hobbit to be contained by only two films. Peter Jackson has announced that the project will now be a trilogy. I, myself, don’t quite get it. The Lord of the Rings as a trilogy makes sense. There were three books. But The Hobbit? It’s a lot shorter than LOTR. But I guess we’ll see.

I haven’t read David Mitchell’s The Cloud Atlas, but the movie adaptation is getting a lot of buzz. The cast seems splendid. And the trailer, at least, is provocative.

Finally one more film trailer. Pete Dexter is one of SeattleTammy’s favorite authors. His book Paris Trout has already had a film treatment and now his southern noir, The Paperboy will take to the screens soon. Looks rather steamy, doesn’t it.

What’s on your nightstand this weekend?