So what's got me all excited? Well, Mr Penumbra owns a 24 hour bookstore that never closes, with regular new books for sale at the front of the store. Also for sale - and the real purpose for the store - are second hand, fabric and leather bound books at the back of the store on high shelves accessed by several ladders and are only for sale to customers with a special member number.
Clay starts working at Penumbra's as a clerk during the late shift and all he needs to do is serve the customers and record all of the details about the members purchasing books from the high shelves into a large register. He is told not to look inside any of these books, and the members are all eccentric in their own way.
During the course of the novel, Clay unveils a secret bookish quest involving the bound and unbound, meets a super smart girl who works for Google and learns that the member books don't exist according to the world wide web.
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a book for book-lovers, those who enjoy unravelling mysteries and modern day quests involving intellects rather than knights with swords. Our hero has a computer as his weapon and a girlfriend working at Google as his 2IC. Some quirky and interesting characters add depth and enjoyment and I just didn't want this novel to end.
I heartily recommend Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore to all readers and stand by it as one of my favourite reads for 2012.
My rating = *****
Carpe Librum! Or as they say in the book: Festina Lente
Everything I have heard about this book suggests it might be one that I would love!
ReplyDeleteI really think so Marg, I wish I could discover it all over again for the 1st time. I'm looking at reading more by Robin Sloan in the hope I can devour more of his magic.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely on my wishlist! Thanks for sharing your review!
ReplyDeleteShelleyrae @ Book'd Out
Excellent, can't wait to hear what you think! I'm sure you're going to love it!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this book, but have a question about the ending. What will be the purpose of the Society now that the puzzle has been solved? It looks like the Society will be continuing just as before with somee of the San Francisco people coming to New York as well.
ReplyDeleteI like to think there will still be those that want to solve it the 'traditional' way. I'd hate to think of the Society falling apart; just doesn't feel right.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they will have a new purpose, I'd love a sequel!!
I was skeptical of this book, hoping it wasn't a Young Adult sort of fluffernutter. It wasn't - more like Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop. It was a fun intersection of book lover-meets-high-tech-geek characters, and they were well developed.
ReplyDeleteNothing too heavy here, but a pleasure to read.
Thanks Alaska, so glad you found this a pleasure to read. 'The Haunted Bookshop' is on my list of books to read, so if it's anything like this one, I'm bound to enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting.