Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel

This book, for me, was like someone read all the same books as I have in the past few years, then sat down and wrote a novel combining elements from all my favorites. There's a pinch of library adventure in the style of [b:From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler|3980|From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler|E.L. Konigsburg|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327784751s/3980.jpg|1384549]. Then there's a touch of [b:The Da Vinci Code|968|The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)|Dan Brown|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303252999s/968.jpg|2982101] (don't hate; it was fun to read) without murders or the casting of disturbing aspersions on a major religion. Face it, secret societies generally make for good times. There are show more joyful bits of [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One|Ernest Cline|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333576871s/9969571.jpg|14863741] gamer nostalgia and of [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] childhood fantasy novel nostalgia. There's even a dash of [b:Just My Type: A Book About Fonts|10909804|Just My Type A Book About Fonts|Simon Garfield|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327886002s/10909804.jpg|10270290]-style font geekcitement. Yes, I made up that word, and yes, I know none of you read Just My Type -- but that just underscores my point, that Robin and I are clearly kindred spirits. And yes, since you [didn't] ask, I've decided I'm on a first-name basis with him.

What tipped this from four to five stars for me was the deft handling of the inevitable confrontation between centuries-old books and the modern-day repository of all knowledge (Google). I won't spoil it for you, but I got quite a kick out of it.

Pick this up when you need a fun and easy read that doesn't make you feel like you've picked up a disposable or trashy "beach read." It's serious in setting but not in style; like mac'n'cheese made with pureed cauliflower, it goes down easy but you don't have to feel guilty about it. show less

How could I not love this book? Look how many of my favorite little shelves it fits on: charming old people, cults, nerd lit, etc.

This book really, really reminded me of early [a:Douglas Coupland|1886|Douglas Coupland|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1264509011p2/1886.jpg], i.e. [b:Shampoo Planet|866034|Shampoo Planet|Douglas Coupland|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|2509254] and [b:Microserfs|1025977|Microserfs|Douglas Coupland|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1180320026s/1025977.jpg|851428], which is actually a huge compliment considering that I loved those books and used to consider Coupland one of my favorite authors before he got all pretentious and lame. And it depresses me a bit to realize that those books are show more about 20 years old, because those are the books of my youth, but I digress. Coupland had Microsoft and Sloan has Google. Both embrace the nerdy elite of their generation and make them hip. Both write a bit of romance into their books, but in a very realistic and awkward way: geekmance.

Also, and I don't mean this as an insult in any way, the mysterious plot reminded me a bit of [a:Dan Brown|630|Dan Brown|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1206553442p2/630.jpg]: codes to be solved, mysterious cult members wearing robes, antiquities to be found, etc.

The solution of the mystery was a bit underwhelming, but I liked the Epilogue, because I like to know what happens to characters even after the main plot is over. show less

There's so much in this slim volume that I'm not sure where to start. Here's the TLDR version: it's an utter delight, and you should buy it immediately.

Our hero is a graphic designer with some meager programming skills who is left jobless by the recession. He finds new work as a bookstore clerk, and soon discovers that the store is much more than it seems. His quest to uncover its secrets leads only to mysteries, eventually sending him not only across the country but (figuratively) back in time to when the technology to make books widely accessible first became available.

The "I love the smell of glue" crowd is represented, as are the "print is already dead" folks. Neither are wrong, because the book as object *and* the book as text are show more important in different ways. The vast power of the Internet is harnessed, often to great effect, but human handcraft is also vital.

That would be plenty, but there's so much more. For instance, consider the idea -- so casually tossed off -- that the world is simply filled with secret societies, the only hitch being that most of them don't realize that they're secret. Or ponder how the standard adventuring party from role-playing games, when the roles are translated into modern terms, actually is a fine combination of human resources for accomplishing a goal quickly. Or think on how movable-type presses were, in their day, the equivalent of a young Internet -- a new technology with limitless and thrilling potential to open vistas theretofore undreamed-of.

It's missing a few things, most notably combat and sex. I didn't miss them. I didn't even really notice their lack until I sat down to write this review. There's no need for faux excitement when there's so much genuine excitement. The book is so full of *story,* not to mention ideas, that the pages very nearly turn of their own accord.

Buy it. Read it. Rethink parts of your world. 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.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan
★★★★★ and still a ♥

Synopsis: The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web-design drone--and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Instead, they "check out" impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. show more Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger. Soon Clay has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers' behavior and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what is going on. And when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.
With irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan has crafted a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century, evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or the young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that is rare to the world of literary fiction. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave, a modern-day cabinet of wonders ready to give a jolt of energy to every curious reader, no matter the time of day.
In A Sentence: A reread and still enchanted by it.
My Thoughts: I admit I read this a year ago for the first time, but I'm continuing my purge on my Favorites list of books that I no longer like. This one survived the test however, and it's remaining a favorite!
I love this book. I mean, it's a book about a bookstore, so how can you not love it right off the bat? And it's not just any bookstore, it's a bookstore that stays open 24 hours a day! That alone made me want to read the book in the first place. It reminded me of a 24-hour university library that I used to frequent when I was studying in England. It was a favorite haunt of mine that I would choose over pubs and night clubs, staying there until past 3 in the morning. Ah, the memories!
Now, this book doesn't provide anything new in terms of morals, or even plot. It's fairly predictable and unsurprising in that sense. But that's not what makes it great. It's how Robin Sloan promotes the book's message that makes this book great:
Some novels make you appreciate and feel inspired by the old, by the way things used to be. Some novels make you appreciate and feel inspired by the new, by what the future could hold. This book does something unusual; it makes you value both. Ancient books and secret societies come into contact with the latest technologies, blending together in such a way that you feel awed and inspired not only by the legacy of the past, but also by the potential of the future. It's an unusual combination for a book, but Robin Sloan was able to pull it off, and pull it off with the right amount of humor, thrill, and adventure.
Overall: It's amazing how this book can make you feel so uplifted regarding just about everything. I personally thought it was very well done. It was well written and well thought-out. I strongly recommend reading it if you haven't done so already. Or if you have read it, go ahead and read it again if you're stuck on what to read next! show less

If someone asks me for a beach read recommendation (which I take to mean something light and absorbing), this is the book I will talk about.

Narrator Clay is a 100% likable guy who instantly assumes the best about the people he meets. The story, through his eyes, takes on a rosy hue that has the potential to be obnoxious, but never becomes so. While he continually finds himself in awe of the capabilities of modern technology (namely everything related to the Google brand) and the brains that develop & use it (namely his girlfriend's), his deep love and loyalty belong to objects of the hand-made realm: his roommate's carefully constructed model city, for example, and (of course) books.

When Clay takes a night shift at an ethereal 24-hour show more book store, he quickly realizes that the shop is more than a shop and the proprietor, elderly Mr. Penumbra, is more than a shopkeeper.

Clay's optimism and earnestness kept me reading, as did the absorbing (if slightly thin) mystery involving a secret society, an underground library, and a super-computer code-cracker. show less

This book felt like a PG-version of Dan Brown's [b:The Lost Symbol|6411961|The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)|Dan Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358274396s/6411961.jpg|6600281]. Like, without the creepy psychos or Masonry involved; the similarities lie in books and codes and secret societies trying to figure them out.

I knew how the LS turned out, so it probably lessened the charm here plotwise even when the immortality card was drawn- because it all boils down to simplicity.

And yet, I loved it.

First impressions matter to me. And I decided that I like Clay Jannon in just the first few pages I've read because he was a designer, and he started talking about logo-making and website design and serifs and all that wonderful geeky show more graphic designer language I've grown a bit accustomed to. His friends were awesome too, who were all either a) arty, like Mat; b) geeky, like Neel, Kat, etc.; or c) bookish, like Penumbra, Oliver, and everyone else. I could make do with arty and geeky and bookish people. They're the best in the world.

I'm not gonna spoil you guys with anything else. Just know that this book includes references to a Harry Potter-esque saga, boob (yes, honka honka) physics, more typeface shenanigans, Batcave sneak-ins, a preview in the life of a Google PM, artifact acquisition, and singularity and maximum happy imagination. And also, it has the best epilogue I have ever read. :)

"Your life must be an open city, with all sorts of ways to wander in." -Clay Jannon show less