The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth became a Sunday Times No 1. Bestseller last weekend. The Independent has written an article exploring its journey to the well-deserved top spot over the Christmas and its continued success.

‘This year’s proud recipient is Mark Forsyth and his delightful book The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language. Like those bestselling predecessors, it’s essentially a book for viewers of QI, witty and erudite and stuffed with the kind of arcane information that nobody strictly needs to know, but which is a pleasure to learn nonetheless. An example: Farts, he writes, are quickly delivered and slowly forgotten. Any accompanying smell quickly peters out, but did you know that the French word for fart is peter, and that from peter comes petard, which means a little explosive?’

Read the full article here and find out more about the book here.

John Sutherland’s The Dickens Dictionary, published at the start of February, was reviewed in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday.

‘Sutherland takes 100 themes, ideas, Dickensian bits and pieces and biographical fragments arranged alphabetically from Mr Sleary’s “Amuthement” to “Zoo Horrors” via serendipitous headings such as “Cauls”, “Gruel”, “Nomenclature” and “Onions”.

Each section comprises a short, upbeat essay written in concise, witty, Hemingway-esque prose. Sutherland tells us under “Blue Plaques”, for example, that “Dickens has left more blue china in his wake than most notables”, or, under “Children”, that, from his marriage in 1836: “Thereafter children came thick and fast – in his homes and into his narratives.”‘

Read the full review here and more about the book here.

Michael Calvin, author of Family: Life, Death and Football, published this month by our sports imprint Corinthian, is interviewed about the world of sports writing, his sabbatical from print journalism, and writing Family in this piece for The FCF:

The FCF: What did you expect from the experience of writing Family, and how was it different?

MC: I asked for the impossible – unrestricted access – and got it. Writing Family has given me a unique insight into the realities of a game that we tend to judge on superficialities. I’m not sure I’m worthy of the compliment, but managers and players who have read the book tend to treat me with a respect that is routinely denied to football writers these days. Relationships have changed, fundamentally, in my career. In 1982, my first World Cup, I remember travelling from the airport in the England team bus and sitting next to Ray Wilkins. I was the youngest member of the Press corps and he was one of the youngest players in the squad. We spoke about our respective positions. That sort of intimacy of contact has gone now. It’s us versus them.

You can read more of the interview on The FCF website.

Janine Self from Sportsjournalists.co.uk also reviews Family – ‘an insightful fly on the wall book of a football season’ – here.

You may already know that Icon is publishing a new Introducing book later this year: Introducing Infinity by Brian Clegg and Oliver Pugh, but did you know that one lucky person will have an illustration of them appear in the book?

We have extended the deadline of our #beinabook competition until Sunday 22nd January. The winner of the competition will submit a photo of themselves and be drawn into a page of Introducing Infinity! You’ll thereby live forever inside – fittingly enough – the page of Introducing Infinity…

Here’s how to enter:

Can you summarize a topic that the Introducing series covers, in 100 characters?

Post your summary on Twitter, including the hashtag #beinabook and this link (http://tinyurl.com/bpal8od) and that’s it! If you’re not a Twitter user, you can also enter by emailing your summary to info@iconbooks.co.uk.

The closing date is 5pm, Sunday 22nd January 2012. Get thinking and get tweeting!

To find out more about the competition and see some example tweets visit the Introducing website.

Dr Rupert Sheldrake’s latest book, The Science Delusion, was published by Coronet this month. However, let us go back to Rupert Sheldrake’s earlier work, originally published in the 1980s, to see where his interest in critiquing modern science began.

Icon has published two fully revised and updated editions of Sheldrake’s seminal work. His theory of morphic resonance in The Presence of the Past challenges the fundamental assumptions of modern science. The second edition of The Presence of the Past summarizes the evidence for Sheldrake’s controversial theory, reviews new research, and explores its implications for biology, chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology. A Science of New Life was Seldrake’s first book, where he introduced the theory of morphic resonance. Described as ‘the best candidate for burning there has been for many years’ by Nature on first publication, this updated edition will raise hackles and inspire curiosity in equal measure.

The new paperback edition of Tina Rosenberg’s brilliant Join the Club has just arrived at Icon HQ.

Tina explores in the book how, from tackling extremism in Brixton to the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, social entrepreneurs can use positive peer pressure to help ordinary people accomplish extraordinary goals.

There’s more about the book here. It’s published in paperback on February 2nd.

Icon Books author and Victorian literature expert John Sutherland has written an insightful article for Radio Times on the enigma of all Dickens novels – the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Sutherland in particular explores the notion that Charles Dickens committed suicide, referring to potential clues in the novel.

John Sutherland excavates the hidden links in Dickens’ work further in the gloriously wide-ranging alphabetical companion, The Dickens Dictionary: An A-Z of England’s Greatest Novelist, to be published 2nd February 2012. You can read more about the book on the website.