Links We Liked for 5 August, 2008.

We're in holiday mode and it's only going to get worse over the next couple of weeks, so here are a few good links to be going on with.

In The Literary Review our own Philip Davis expands on his ideas about 'The Shakespeared Brain'. Read his earlier thoughts here.

The Washington Post has a review of Doris Lessing's reimagining of her parents' lives, Alfred & Emily.

The Freakonomics blog at the New York Times has an interesting idea for writers hoping to take the risk out of writing: sell shares in your upcoming novel.

Wired has a breakdown of who is likely to want to buy a Kindle ebook reader and concludes not only that the reported sales so far of 240,000 Kindles represents quite a large chunk of the market for these things but that the Kindle at this point is something like a 'game changing Harpsichord'. That may turn out to be a little harsh, but it's a fair assumption that the 'iPod of reading' is not likely to sell as well as the iPod itself.

This is the week in which Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died. Here are some of the best links covering his life and death.

And finally, it may be quite historic now, but Bookride has a terrific tall tale from the second hand book trade. Is it true or untrue? I don't care.

Posted by Chris Routledge