Thank goodness it's the Weekend!

This isn't quite a Weekend Miscellany, since it's more a cheer of joy that this week is over! For this week, on consecutive days, I gave my first lecture and my first conference paper. Both went well, and the Oxford University English Graduate Conference was actually surprisingly fun - very relaxed and friendly; not scary and full of career-driven people as I'd feared it might be. And it came with a keynote speech from Penelope Lively about reading and writing and memory etc. It was deliciously wonderful - a bit like Howards End is on the Landing turned into a talk, albeit from a different author - and I'm keen to rectify my lack of Lively reading.

Oh, in case you were wondering - my lecture was on genre and reception theory, for first-year undergraduates; my conference paper was entitled '"If it were less, it would be gossip - if it were more, it would be genius": Placing the Middlebrow and the Middlebrow Place 1918-1939' - people seemed appreciative, and there were lots of fascinating talks given during the day.

So, since a week's worth of nervous energy has left me exhausted (some people take these things in their stride, I'm sure, but I am not one of them) I am retiring to bed - and will just give you three links to reviews which have come up on other blogs this week, since they're all wonderful thoughts about some of my favourite books.

- Thomas (My Porch) reads his first Tove Jansson short story collection, Travelling Light

- Daniel (Hiberian Homme) finally reads the wonderful Diary of a Provincial Lady

- Claire (Captive Reader) experiences the bookish joy that is Howards End is on the Landing

Hope you're having a good weekend - I'll be spending a lot of mine asleep!