Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore

I almost didn't like this, as it veered into unbearably twee/Ready Reader One territory, with its quaint old bookshop, loveable old owner, odd customers taking odd books, suggestions of a secret society chasing down a hidden message for centuries, then getting gazumped by Google, a nerdy protagonist with unbearably cool and useful friends and flatmates and even a pixie dream girl girlfriend (non-manic or that would have been the final straw,) but somehow it teetered back from the brink and managed to cram in a clever heist and a neat treasure hunt before a surprisingly lovely climax filled with friendship and optimism.

I had a good time reading this one. The writing style easily flows along page after page. Once I started, it was difficult to stop. Had it not been 10:30 at night when I began, I might have read this in a single sitting. As it was, I read over half the book before turning out the light - on a work night. D'oh! ;)

What we have here is a mystery that involves immortality and the history of the printed word. The way the mystery unfolds is handled deftly and the characters all run around doing (mostly) logical things. I really enjoyed the collisions of nerdy Silicon Valley hacker culture with the more stodgy sensibilities of the quirky 'secret society' types that frequent Mr. Penumbra's book store. Sloan wove these seemingly disparate show more elements together beautifully and showed that there is more common ground between human generations than might be apparent at first glance.

This one is going on my 'Favorites' shelf. Highly recommended for those who might enjoy a light, non-violent, fun & geeky mystery read. On the other hand, if you are looking for something dark, creepy & scary, this YA-style read might not be for you. show less

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is a relaxed ramble through the overlap between "Old Knowledge" (aka books) and rapidly evolving new technology. Our hero is Clay Jannon, who was once "the voice of @NewBagel on Twitter, and attracted a few hundred followers with a mix of breakfast trivia and digital coupons.” In a down economy, he somehow ends up working as a clerk in Mr. Penumbra's extremely vertical bookstore, where adeptness at climbing ladders is essential.

He loves books in part because, as a boy, he and his closest friend were enraptured by "The Dragonsong Chronicles" trilogy. Although there are no dragons in this book, that series will turn out to have more significance than he ever would have guessed. Clay begins show more to suspect something unusual is going on when a certain subscribing clientele are the only ones allowed to read the dusty, hard to get to volumes in the back, which have odd names and seemingly indecipherable contents.

There are engaging side characters, like his roommate Mat, who by day works on special effects for Industrial Light and Magic, making props and movie sets, and at night labors on his "Matropolis", on multiple card tables in the apartment, "a scaled-down dreamscape, a bright glittering hyper-city made with scraps of the familiar." I enjoyed imagining it from Sloan's description, and Mat's skill set will prove critical as events unfold. The same is true with Clay's romantic interest Kat, who works at Google and loves to wear a vibrant "BAM!" t-shirt. The spoofing of Google is a standout in the enjoyment of this book, including the company's attempts to build "renewable energy that runs on hubris."

Inevitably the Old Knowledge book world clashes with, or maybe is subsumed by, the ever optimistic tech world, and Google's well-known book project becomes involved. There's a riddle to be solved, and lessons to be learned. At one point Clay tries to imagine life in 3012. "I can't come up with an even half-way decent scene. Will people live in buildings? Will they wear clothes? My imagination is almost physically straining. Fingers of thought are raking the space behind the cushions, looking for loose ideas, finding nothing." One hope of mine, both at the end of the book and for 3012, is that somewhere there will be a Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore. show less

Ingredients pretty much guaranteed to get me to read a book: a mysterious secret society of bibliophiles, a curious bookstore, a gorgeous subterranean reading room, secret codes, the intersection of technology and the world of books, Aldus Manutius. Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (FSG, 2012) has all those bases covered and more. Sloan, who describes himself as a "media inventor," and who, like many of us, is interested in both books and computers and how the two can play together, has crafted a fun, quest-type story that's sure to find a wide audience.

Yes, the plot may be a little bit boilerplate, and yes, some of the characters aren't exactly drawn in any great depth. But Sloan's fascination with books and their makers, show more and how technology is (and is not) reshaping the biblioverse comes through loud and clear. His quick wit and ability to slip with ease from describing programming languages to typography to data visualization make this book thoroughly enjoyable. I don't want to give away much of the plot: just go read it.

The book itself is also a lovely object, designed by Abby Kagan with a glow-in-the-dark dust jacket by Rodrigo Corral. show less

What a fun book to read! Clay, the main character/narrator throughout the book, has such a cheerful voice: deadpan humor, self-deprecating, clearly describing what and who he encounters. From the back of the book: "The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest". And what a fun ride it is: a strange bookstore, cryptic puzzles written in code books, or "codex vitae", a secret society determined to unlock the secrets left by Manutius, a early printer in the beginning of printed books, an interesting show more group of friends with amazing talents - all set in the swirl of Google/3-D imaging/computer software geekdom. The mix of details about ancient books, type fonts, artifacts, Google and its visionary projects, 3-D art work for film, and software programming... I know, I know. It sounds like a crazy mash up, but it all works together to support Clay's journey to "unlock the code" for his mysterious but kindly bookstore owner, Mr. Penumbra. This will definitely be on my "favorite books" list for the year! show less

A secret society seeking to decrypt arcane knowledge from an ancient text... sounds like the plot of Foucault's Pendulum. But this is Eco Lite--a sunnier, more upbeat version. What it lacks in intellectual gravitas it makes up in humor and goodwill. And though I say it lacks gravitas, it has intelligence and cleverness to spare. Once I recognized the parallels to Foucault, I was prepared to despise it (Foucault's Pendulum is, after all, one of my favorite books), but it won me over completely with its charm. I listened to the audio book (not as incongruous as I thought it might be for a book about books, as it turns out), and the narrator, Ari Fliakos, did a fabulous job--just perfect in tone and timbre for Clay Jannon.

I loved this book. LOVED it. But before I tell you why, let me tell you what I did not like.

The epilogue is little more than an afterthought. "Oh, I guess I should explain what happened next." It was unnecessary, the book could have ended without the epilogue and been better for it.

Another thing I didn't like was the Google is the master of the universe nonsense. It stretches credibility to think that Google is as all-powerful as described in the book. And the character Kat, with her obsession with immortality ... please. I've been to the Mountain View campus, and it is nothing like it's described, not even close. It's fun to imagine a company with all those things, but utterly unnecessary for the book.

Now the good stuff. Mr. Penumbra's show more 24-Hour Bookstore is shrouded in mystery. Penumbra. Get it? It's obvious from the beginning there's more going on than meets the eye. And as interesting and satisfying as that was, the real story to me is discovering that the answer to the question is much simpler than any seeker believes.

In this case, the secret Unbroken Spine society believes that solving the puzzles (by hand with paper and pencil) left in an encoded codex vitae by its founder, Manutius will lead to the secret of immortality.

In any adventure novel, there has to be a Quest with grand heroic themes, which almost always lead to a much more subtle, quieter, nuanced and, satisfying answer. And the protagonist, Clay Jannings, leader of the Quest, discovers the quiet, simple answer sought by generations of members of the Society.

The intersection of traditional technology (paper and pencil) with high tech (computers, crowdsourcing, etc.) is the initial tension in this story. And, it turns out to be the starting point to a much larger and more interesting tension. What is the nature of knowledge, and how it's used? What is the nature of love, in all its messy permutations?

On the surface, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a pretty good mystery story, and it mostly works on that level. But underneath, there's the quest for learning something more, something esoteric, something "deeper" and simpler. And that, is where this book really shone for me. show less