Last month the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing – SHARP – held its annual gathering over several days (11–15 July) in The Hague. The hosting was shared between the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague and the University of Leiden. Both are now active in the field of book history. At Leiden one can do an MA in Book and Digital Media Studies, while the KB manages the Bibliopolis project, an online history of the printed book in the Netherlands. The event offered a now familiar conference mix of a few highly polished and interesting plenary lectures by star performers, a huge number of short (twenty-minute) talks mostly on highly specific topics and in which empirical digging usually outweighs critical thought, plus quite a bit of enjoyable schmoozing at receptions and refreshment breaks.