The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing is meeting in Oxford -- my first visit here, and I'm in love with this university and town. Dashing off now for a morning of demonstrations of digital databases for book history. Otherwise, this is a decidedly low-tech conference -- not a laptop in sight among the audiences for papers on topics ranging from Renaissance Italian bookselling, to contemporary scientific grey literature, to movie tie-ins for Booker Prize shortlist titles. The opening reception was at Blackwell's bookstore -- one could profitably spend the entire week there, but the sessions beckon. More details on the conference themes and sessions later... Sue Searing