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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

(Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore #1)

Robin Sloan (Goodreads Author)

3.75 · Rating details · 162,827 ratings · 24,232 reviews

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. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything; instead, they "check out" ...more

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Hardcover, 288 pages

Published October 2nd 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Oct 15, 2012 Blair rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle, first-novels, contemporary, 2012-release

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is one of those books that appears to have the perfect blend of ingredients for something brilliant. It's a mystery/adventure set in San Francisco, revolving around an out-of-work marketeer and web designer who takes a job as a clerk at the odd little bookshop of the title. He soon realises that there is more to Mr. Penumbra's than meets the eye, and together with a group of his friends, he embarks on a mission to get to the bottom of the shop's real purpose. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is one of those books that appears to have the perfect blend of ingredients for something brilliant. It's a mystery/adventure set in San Francisco, revolving around an out-of-work marketeer and web designer who takes a job as a clerk at the odd little bookshop of the title. He soon realises that there is more to Mr. Penumbra's than meets the eye, and together with a group of his friends, he embarks on a mission to get to the bottom of the shop's real purpose. What follows is a fantastical series of events involving an international secret society and almost impossibly complex codes hidden inside a series of books. It's a collision of ancient mystery and very modern, internet-savvy characters. It really sounded like something I would love, and it was in fact a really enjoyable little story. However, it's short - almost certainly far too short for all the ideas it tries to cram in - and at the end I realised it had been something of a letdown, for two main reasons.

Firstly, I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that it was very familiar, that I'd almost read it before. It didn't take me long to realise that this was because the narrative voice reminded me so much of Ready Player One, a great adventure book which I read about a year ago. If it wasn't for the fact that Ready Player One is set in the future, I could easily have believed that this story was being told by a slightly older version of the same guy. Obviously the stories are very different, but their voices sound and feel very alike. Also, the plot is similar to Lev Grossman's Codex. Incredibly similar. Both have a kind-of-likeable, kind-of-annoying young male protagonist whose sidekicks are a computer-obsessed best friend and an unusually intelligent young woman (who's also the love interest), a central mystery involving a peculiar library and a centuries-old encoded book, and the use of modern technology and software to help solve a very old-fashioned conundrum. (There's even one scene, involving the main character visiting a warehouse full of museum objects to retrieve an important artefact, which I'm pretty sure is in both books, but I'd have to re-read Codex to know for definite, it's possible I'm confusing it with something else.)

Secondly, I found it very juvenile. I'm only sure it must be intended for an adult market because all the characters are adults - I really felt the author's style and execution would be much better suited to an adventure for teens (more specifically, teenage boys). Weirdly, it felt more like YA to me than Ready Player One, which actually has teenage protagonists. It also had all the hallmarks of YA that normally stop me from enjoying it: lack of a properly detailed backstory; two-dimensional characters (the bad guy is a collection of clichés and a damp squib all at once); way too many convenient details (Neel is a millionaire who can pay for everything the group needs, Kat can get them into Google and utilise all the company's resources for their task, etc). There's no real tension or peril: it's too obvious any obstacles are going to be overcome easily. I did genuinely like the fact that the power of new technology was so closely woven into a story about an arcane fellowship of book-lovers, and the progression of the story illustrated that there will always be a place for both 'old' and 'new'. But all those references to Google, Twitter, apps etc are going to sound very dated very soon, and the fact that the characters could solve practically anything by looking it up on the internet - while accurate and funny - diffused a lot of potential tension.

I thought this was a likeable, quick and very easy read but I have to admit I'm a bit bemused by all the rave reviews it's been getting. It's a nice idea, but it's been done before and done better. Ready Player One is more involving and more fun, and there are countless versions of the secret-society-intrigue-and-mystery story that have more power, atmosphere and punch. ...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Libby rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, read-in-2012

Meh - 1.5 stars because the plot was interesting enough that I finished the book and there were some funny moments. While Mr. Sloan is imaginative and quick witted it does not make up for poor writing and boring characters. The book is just bad first person narrative. This would be an acceptable as a Syfy Saturday movie but not for a novel.For example "It's early in the morning. We came straight from the airport. Neel visits Manhattan all the time for business and I used to take the train down ...more

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Jun 17, 2012 karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-about-books-about-books, thank-you-bea-or-ala

suuuuper fun!

this book is going to sell like gangbusters when it comes out in october. mostly because each and every one of you reading this review are going out and getting yourselves a copy. this is a command.

you like books, right? yes, you do, because you are a member of goodreads. and this book is about books! and puzzles! and adventure! there's not a whole lot that's better than that.it is shades of Salamander and The Grand Complication: A Novel and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and ...more

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Jun 13, 2013 Ariel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

HOLY MOLY, BATMAN, EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS. I am actually so excited to write this review... I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY!

Because I have so many thoughts, let's do this bullet-point style.

- This story was so positive and mood-uplifting! Geez. I never felt that horrible dread you feel sometimes when you're reading: that loss of faith with the author where you ask the horrible question "Is the author going to screw this all up?" All throughout reading the book there were moments where I felt the HOLY MOLY, BATMAN, EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS. I am actually so excited to write this review... I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY!

Because I have so many thoughts, let's do this bullet-point style.

- This story was so positive and mood-uplifting! Geez. I never felt that horrible dread you feel sometimes when you're reading: that loss of faith with the author where you ask the horrible question "Is the author going to screw this all up?" All throughout reading the book there were moments where I felt the exciting jolt of panic.. “Oh no! What’s going to happen?!” but I never felt worry that the story would end badly. It was constantly fun and happy. It made me happy.
- I LEARNED SO MUCH. Okay, as a person I love to learn new things, but the truth is that I don’t read very much non-fiction. When reading you are constantly learning new things through the decisions of people, by taking on new perspectives, but in this book I actually learned new facts and things! It felt like I was picking up interesting knowledge and it kept me excited to read.
- There were so many great uses of setting in this book. Wowzapants. To places like Hogwarts, to places like Spy Kids, from Google to a knitting museum, this book never felt stagnant. It was fresh and exciting and the settings all felt so legitimate.
- The best way I can describe the idea of this book is “National Treasure for Book Lovers”. I love the National Treasure movies, they are just a good ol’ time, and so was this book!
- The characters were so complex! And there were so many of them! We had so many different secondary characters constantly being introduced but the writing never made them feel unnecessary… in real life we have people that we need for certain things but only interact with very little. This book had lots of different levels of interaction with people, which was new and great. Also, the characters were all super complex and fascinating. None of them felt flat or 1 dimensional.. they were all real people and were constantly surprising.
- The collaboration between old and new. Between older people and younger people, older technologies and newer technologies, older thinking and newer thinking. Brilliant!
- Speaking of technology, THE TECHNOLOGY. There was such an amazing use of different technologies in this book, but best of all they were all plausible. There are some movies and books where a character pulls out a tool that is specifically designed to solve the exact problem at hand and it’s so unrealistic… those tools can’t exist! But everything used in this book was real, and it made me feel like this adventure actually happened.
- Finally, the main character. WHAT A MAIN CHARACTER! He is exactly the kind of lead you want in this type of story! Constantly clueless BUT TRYING HIS HARDEST, absolutely hilarious, and genuine and earnest.

I had such a riot reading this book. And the best part? I know I’m going to love rereading and rereading this book until the end of my days. It was so well crafted and had me in smiles and laughs every time I picked it up. Ultimate recommendation!

PS: A shout-out to my main men, Jesse from JesseTheReader and Dylan from DylanBooks, for reading this with me! Talking to them throughout the reading made it even more fun! The mystery had us going and it took us to a happy place :)
...more

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Mar 26, 2013 carol. rated it liked it

Shelves: lit-fiction, mystery, friend-recommended

Authors are magicians. I was in the early pages of Mr. Penumbra when I realized that Sloan was sneaking in a major chain of events in only a few short paragraphs with the intention of moving the story to where he needed it. It was the authorial equivalent of "look, nothing up my sleeve" in preparation of a hat trick. Rather than irritation from this momentary flap of curtain or glimpse of rabbit ear, I was rather captivated.

Thinking back on books I've loved or hated, it occurs to me that in that ...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Ami rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars_rating, literature-fiction

Forgive me, people, this review will be all gushing!

This book charmed me from the very beginning -- with fresh internal monologues, from Clay Jannon, a recent unemployed young man, who just lost his first job out of art school... Then he walks into a bookstore (OMG BOOKSTORE!!) and he climbs the ladder, and I'm in love.

How could I not?

This book is a love letter for books, bibliophiles, but also for technology. We know that the world of books, publishings, and reading have changed in the Forgive me, people, this review will be all gushing!

This book charmed me from the very beginning -- with fresh internal monologues, from Clay Jannon, a recent unemployed young man, who just lost his first job out of art school... Then he walks into a bookstore (OMG BOOKSTORE!!) and he climbs the ladder, and I'm in love.

How could I not?

This book is a love letter for books, bibliophiles, but also for technology. We know that the world of books, publishings, and reading have changed in the recent years, thanks to the wonderful world of Internet. There are ebooks, ereaders (Kindles, Nook, Kobo, etc), and tablets. We start looking for definitions from Google (instead of those huge print dictionaries). We start looking for facts on Wikipedia. It's NEW, it's EXCITING!

This book refers to all that. It combines the wonderful world of stories (fonts! printings! hidden messages in stories!!), manual crafting (people making props for movies! Knittings!) and technology (data visualization! GOOGLE! computer language!) and creates a great adventure for a simple reader, like myself. It's not futuristic, it's not high fantasy, it's simply a use of contemporary items around us ... and of course, BOOKS!

I'm simply in love with the feeling that this book evokes. I feel like I'm right there with Clay, and his eccletic friends: there's Kat, the smart girl working at Google, there's Neel, his millionaire best-friends who is making money by creating the best BOOBS visual in the world (yes, people, BOOBS!), Mat who is an extraordinaire with props, and of course, Mr. Penumbra, the owner of the store who is also involved in a secret literary group. And it keeps the right balance between books and technology. Just when I think technology will win it all, to solve everything, the book throws a twist. That nope, the great human mind can still win. It's just so, SO amazing.

The book is not without flaws. I'm quite disappointed that the whole adventure pretty much happens at Google or at the store. I sort of want the story to go all "Indiana Jones" or "National Treasure", you know, with secret caves, and such. Also, the very VERY contemporary feeling of this story, might make it go outdated quickly. But in the end, I go back to the whole feeling I have when I'm reading this. It's excitement, it's happiness, it's like being with friends who are really, really enthusiastic about the things I love.

“After that, the book will fade, the way all books fade in your mind. But I hope you will remember this:

A man walking fast down a dark lonely street. Quick steps and hard breathing, all wonder and need. A bell above a door and the tinkle it makes. A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.”

And the last sentence just makes me all shivery and tingly ... because yes, the RIGHT BOOK, at exactly THE RIGHT TIME, will make everything worth while *sigh*
...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Maciek rated it it was ok

Shelves: thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2013, reviewed

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is the debut novel by Robin Sloan, and a publishing sensation - it was Amazon's Best Book of the Month in October 2012, and received a lot of attention and praise from reviewers, authors and readers. No wonder - who wouldn't want a 24-hour book store?

The novel aspires to be classified as a "literary mystery", or an "intelligent thriller" - both labels are somewhat insulting by suggesting that mysteries and thrillers are by default a lower tier of literature, and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is the debut novel by Robin Sloan, and a publishing sensation - it was Amazon's Best Book of the Month in October 2012, and received a lot of attention and praise from reviewers, authors and readers. No wonder - who wouldn't want a 24-hour book store?

The novel aspires to be classified as a "literary mystery", or an "intelligent thriller" - both labels are somewhat insulting by suggesting that mysteries and thrillers are by default a lower tier of literature, and that the classic whodunnit does not require the use of the reader's brain other than to remember what the detective is called, hence the need to emphasize that this particular one is in fact intelligent and should not be grouped together with the common paperback, featuring the latest case of inspector Z in the series Y. Its premise usually aims to be more complex than a simple murder scenario: the protagonist(s) usually search for a long lost document of great importance, one which can change the history of the world. Of course the existence of such a thing is also known to the bad guys, here played by an underground group/secret society. This scheme presents plenty of opportunities to include laboriously researched data, allowing the reader to feel the impression that they're learning facts along with following the plot, which moves at the pace of a "regular" thriller - and you've got a bestseller. The poster boy of this movement is of course Dan Brown, who with his The Da Vinci Code shot up to fame and popularity unexpected by anyone; hundreds of novels following aiming to cash in on the scheme have appeared since its publication in 2003.

Mr. Penumbra reminded me heavily of Lev Grossman's forgotten novel Codex, which also follows Brown's pattern: Both Penumbra and Codex have a male protagonist who is friends with a computer genius; the central mystery involves a special book (and a secret library) and features the use of contemporary technology to understand its contents. It also struck me as completely plain and almost juvenile, despite being marketed as a work for adults.

The characters lack depth and originality, and barely provoke any interest in the reader; from the paper-thin protagonist and his wealthy IT yuppie friend, the love interest - a slim and geeky girl who is of course attractive and willing to be interested in our protagonist (she's described as having feline-like qualities, and is called...Kat) - because the author makes so. Even the old Mr. Penumbra with his quirky name provokes little interest. There's a foreing character from Belarus, who's also hopelessly presented with attempts at a foreign accent and a foreign name of Igor (at least it's not Ivan).

Although the book is set in San Francisco, it does not have any sense of the place; it could have been set in any city on the East Coast - or West Coast for that matter, or in truth in any major city in any country: the only references to San Francisco are the mentions of the IT businesses and people profiting or getting laid off, and just once - "the smell of the ocean". The setting is like a cardboard prop in a B-movie, threatening to fall apart at the slightest gust of wind.

The central mystery does not feel like a mystery at all, as there is no sense of any possible danger looming ahead; although the main character is presented as a man in a tough spot he and his friends always easily find a convenient solution to any problem, which comes at a little to any cost. The novel is short - very short - and packed with references to pop culture and books - communicating via Skype, the inner workings of Google, working at a bookstore and dealing with weird customers - but these references seem to do little for the overall plot, as they are what most of us already experienced and know well. With a well-oiled engine to drive this book forward, the pace slows down, and the road ends up nowhere.

I was not surprised when I discovered that the author has initially published a short story, which he later expanded into a novel. I did not find the short story any better, and the added fat did not give the novel any extra merit: it has been done before and better, and undoubtedly will be again. This book is forcefully hip, tries to accomplish too much and accomplishes too little; even as an allegory or fantasy it's too bland and obvious. The comparisons readers and critics make strike me as unbelieveable - Umberto Eco? Neal Stephenson? William Gibson? Really? I remain puzzled by its popularity and the praise it gathered - perhaps the real (and much more interesting) conspiracy lies there. ...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Greg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, books-about-books

I am so happy that we happened to be walking past the booth were Robin Sloan was signing, and someone was holding up a copy of the attractive ARC trying to lure people onto the line (which I now see the cover has been added to the book on goodreads, the book looks better than the picture suggests). This is good and I'm thinking if the world has any fairness at all this will be a fairly good selling book this fall.

In a perfect world this would go blasting up the sales charts and topple the Fifty ...more

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May 23, 2013 Felicia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

Well, I can't say I've been charmed by a book more in a while, and jealous I didn't write it. This is a totally hipster book that rings all my bells, I feel like it sort of summarizes the zeitgeist of our internet generation, the gap between old and new.

Basically the main character, Clay, is unemployed tech guy, gets a job in a run-down bookstore that has a mysterious agenda that he can't help but get roped into. I'm a sucker for secret societies, and there's a touch of Amelie whimsey that is ...more

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Nov 25, 2013 Ginny rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, library-book

A mysterious old bookstore with some kind of secret society to be infiltrated and unraveled? Cool! Except, alas, here we have a fun premise ruined by bullshit nerdbro execution.

1. An everyman nerd protagonist with no personality beyond a degree in design and deep knowledge of the internet whose main development is his realization he has talented friends who are more interesting than he is. Congrats?

2. A best friend whose company does boob physics for video games and whose major contribution to A mysterious old bookstore with some kind of secret society to be infiltrated and unraveled? Cool! Except, alas, here we have a fun premise ruined by bullshit nerdbro execution.

1. An everyman nerd protagonist with no personality beyond a degree in design and deep knowledge of the internet whose main development is his realization he has talented friends who are more interesting than he is. Congrats?

2. A best friend whose company does boob physics for video games and whose major contribution to dialogue is boob jokes (and D&D references). At one point corners a female knitting museum curator to pitch an exhibit on boobs in sweaters. Author appears to have been going for "funny", instead lands in "groan-worthy-heart-rendingly-eyeball-rollingly creepy". Hey reader, did you know there are BOOBS that JIGGLE? We'd like to take this moment out of your plot to remind you that BOOBS.

3. Manic pixie dreamgirl alert. A brilliant Google programmer who is genius and quirky and of course MAJOR YOWZA HOT WE MUST POINT OUT REPEATEDLY WITH BOOBS AND EVERYTHING and for some indiscernible reason is interested in spending time with Mr. No Personality Main Character and faithfully helping him in his quest. Because if she weren't all those things, then this wouldn't be a very satisfying fantasy for all the sensitive nerdbros out there would it?

4. Unsurprisingly, doesn't manage to pass the Bechdel test, and if it does, it does so barely. The point, of course, of the Bechdel test is that it's a laughably low bar for involvement of female characters in your plot and so even if you manage to just barely pass it, there is still something deeply problematic about your story.

5. The main distinction between characters in this novel is which precise arcane subject they are obsessed with. Is it fonts? Is it miniature practical effects? Ancient architecture?
Data visualization? Life extension? In typical nerdbro fashion, people are not interesting for their emotional or psycho-social development (we are left to conclude they have none) but rather for their nerdly obsessions. I have no problem with nerdly obsessions, except that they are a poor substitute for actual character development.

6. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that apparently the moral of the story is we get by with a little help from our friends (wow, such deep, so learning, wow) except the author undermines his own point by actually having the main character go lone wolf in the last third of his quest. So, friends are good but you, oh sensitive nerdbro, are also the mighty lone hero. YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL including this muddled conclusion.

7. Did you forget about boobs? HOW COULD YOU?? Boobs. ...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Sarah rated it did not like it

Should probably be two stars, but I feel mean and petty today. Sorry, Mr. Sloan.

It all just seemed so...amateur. I feel kind of pretentious saying that, which makes me sad, because there's nothing I hate more than pretentious book reviews. It's just a mess of worn-out tropes and utterly unoriginal characters. Mysterious dusty bookshops and peculiar old men. I think Sloan tried to revamp that old line with some "hip" new technology stuff, but he just failed miserably. He almost made me hate Should probably be two stars, but I feel mean and petty today. Sorry, Mr. Sloan.

It all just seemed so...amateur. I feel kind of pretentious saying that, which makes me sad, because there's nothing I hate more than pretentious book reviews. It's just a mess of worn-out tropes and utterly unoriginal characters. Mysterious dusty bookshops and peculiar old men. I think Sloan tried to revamp that old line with some "hip" new technology stuff, but he just failed miserably. He almost made me hate Google just by talking about it so much. And he killed any potential for intrigue and adventure in the book by making his main character (oh-so-coincidentally) friends with experts on everything with access to every resource one could possibly need. Need to figure out a code in a book? By golly, guess it's good he's friends with a girl who has access to the best scanner and decoder in the world! Need money? Not a problem, 'cause his elementary-school best friend is a millionaire! Need a moveable scanner? Luckily he knows just the site to find one, and a stranger is willing to build and transport it to him! Needs to know about ancient art shit? Thank the Lord his co-worker is an archaeological genius! Christ. Sloan was clearly a Harry Potter fan, so I'm just glad he didn't write that series: "'We have to find the horcruxes!' Harry realized. He logged onto the horcrux database and typed a simple search: 'horcruxes AND voldemort OR he-who-must-not-be-named.' Seven results! Perfect! But how to destroy them? Harry called up Dumbledore, who had made his fortune building a special transportable Horcrux Deactivator made of wizard cardboard. Hedwig fetched it for him immediately, and Harry utilized it to great effect. All was well." Yes, technology can make things easier. And I appreciate that Sloan didn't ignore it--too many books nowadays build elaborate plot points around things that could be solved with a simple Google (yes, Google again!) search. But he went too far in the other direction and killed his own story's intrigue.

I thought the climax of the story was terribly underwhelming. I had no interest in any of the characters. I appreciate what Mr. Sloan was trying to do, but it fell flat for me. Things felt rather gimmick-y. It's probably a bad sign when the best thing about your book is that it glows in the dark.

Sigh. What a mean review this is. I feel a bit bad about it, actually. If the book sounds really interesting to you, go ahead and read it. But I got nothing from it. ...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Mark rated it really liked it

Recommended to Mark by: Richard Derus

Shelves: first-person-narration

I have just lost the will to live. Have spent two hours writing a review of this brilliant book and then saved it but somehow Goodreads managed to lose it . Will probably kill someone if i sit here any longer so am off to the gym to do something sweaty, noisy and pointless and maybe will try again later. Very f***ing annoyed. Bye for now....................its a brilliant book by the way. I hate the 21st Century sometimes

'Your life must be an open city, with all sorts of ways to wander in'

'All ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 PorshaJo rated it it was ok

Shelves: challengereads, challengereads-2017, audio

OK, I'm going to try something different with this review...a bit of snark!

I have been wanting to read this one for so long. I was enchanted about the idea of this 24 hour book store. A book about a bookstore, with book references...yeah! But what I got instead, was a drinking game. That's at least what I got out of this one. The story starts with Clay Jannon, who has lost his job at a bagel place where he is doing tech work and then goes to work at Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour book store. He tells OK, I'm going to try something different with this review...a bit of snark!

I have been wanting to read this one for so long. I was enchanted about the idea of this 24 hour book store. A book about a bookstore, with book references...yeah! But what I got instead, was a drinking game. That's at least what I got out of this one. The story starts with Clay Jannon, who has lost his job at a bagel place where he is doing tech work and then goes to work at Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour book store. He tells his story and I was a bit worried initially when he gets into tech talk about his job, doing web site design, coding, and more. Describing the bookstore was good, but then you keep hearing more and more tech jargon. I started getting bored, then it was GOOGLE this and that. Over and over again. So I decided when he was began talking tech, DRINK a shot! When he mentions GOOGLE, drink a double shot, DRINK! Oh wait, every time he opened his Mac book or closed his Mac book (never just a computer) DRINK! Oh my goodness! Anyway, Mr. Sloan is obviously a foodie - from the info on the job at the bagel place, to the risotto making roommate, to the...wait for it.... GOOGLE (DRINK!) cafeteria. Where he had the lentil salad that is awesome at the GOOGLE (DRINK!) cafeteria. But there's more, there is a heavy tequila shot you must DRINK when we hear about Steve Jobs, Apple, and Microsoft (DRINK!). At this point, I just don't care about the bookstore and how the GOOGLE (DRINK!) pixie chick with her friends help with....oh I dunno, I've had too much to drink by now.

Seriously, I work in the tech field. I hear all this stuff all day, I write and read code, I read technical books, I write technical documents, I use GOOGLE (DRINK!) search engine for troubleshooting, and the last thing I want to do in my evenings is read a technical book. I had no idea this book would go down this path. I actually did a GOOGLE (DRINK!) search of Mr. Sloan to see if he was an employee at one time of GOOGLE (DRINK!). After awhile, I though he was this geeky tech guy who wrote a book about all his favorite stuff - coding, different programming languages, a friend whose company creates boobs for computer games, food, GOOGLE (DRINK!), and his favorite book. It was almost like he had this idea to create a video game but out of that instead came a book. So yeah, this did not work for me. But I've created a drinking game that is much more fun than quarters.

I give it to the author as many people really do love this book. I listened to this one via audio and I really did like the narrator. I'm not done reading this authors books. I've been patiently waiting for his latest, which NG is making me wait forever on a decision. I do plan to read it. I just hope there are no references to GOOGLE (DRINK!) in it.

One more thing.....I actually do not drink at all! :-) ...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Ben rated it did not like it

Ugh, not recommended. I considered stopping reading several times, but it was such a quick read that I just sped on through.

The novel made a dramatization of numerous topics that I do feel like I have a bit of expertise around - San Francisco, Googlers, data visualization, encryption - and the book's representation came off as a shallow, borderline painful overt dramatization. It seemed ridiculous. I know little of the author's background, but the novel itself gave the impression of too strong ...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Richard Derus rated it really liked it

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Book Description: A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore

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 has landed him a new gig working the night shift Rating: 3.9* of five

The Book Description: A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore

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 has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just 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 “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once 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 enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or a young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that’s 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.

My Review: A bookstore with no customers wanted. A secret society called “The Unbroken Spine.” A library of books in a code that even Google boffins have trouble breaking. In the end, a resolution to the seemingly mortal combat between tree books and ebooks that will leave the true-hearted reader smiling.

Escapist fun. Rollicking silliness. Eccentric amusement. All on offer in heaping helpings, with a garnish of goofy grins.

Election season has me on Outrage Overload, and my antidote to any ill is reading a good book. Short of terminal disease, I believe a good read will cure any ailment of mind, body, or spirit. I stopped frothing hysterically about Bain Capital owning an interest in a voting-machine contractor in Ohio for almost an hour while reading this book. Watching the evil-bastard GOP set up for another election steal like 2000 causes me to scream imprecations loudly, so Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore hath wrought a miracle!

Take a break from your cares. Read this enjoyable, entertaining book about improbable people doing implausible things to solve an impossible, absurd problem. It will leave you refreshed!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. ...more

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Mar 23, 2018 Raeleen Lemay rated it liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction

I liked the mix of old and new knowledge/media/books, and the bookstore setting was fantastic (especially such a strange bookstore!) but once we got into the mystery, my interest evaporated. I also felt like the characters were all a bit too ~convenient~ in that they all had special skills that ended up somehow becoming necessary throughout the novel to help the main character with his quest.

Overall, a fun book, but nothing mind blowing!

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Apr 11, 2014 Darth J rated it it was amazing

Shelves: disappointing, would-recommend, awesome

4.5 Stars

Oh, so much of this book is exactly what I wanted.

There was first an old and dusty bookstore.

With an old and whimsical caretaker.

And a prophecy surrounding a secret cult of black robe wearing bibliophiles, written in code form.

Did I mention that this secret cult meets in an underground library? The entrance is a fricken' swiveling bookcase!

Hell, even the characters have interesting names such as Kat Potente, Corvina, and Ajax Penumbra.

There's even a bit about google and coding which ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 da AL rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-literary

The first third of it was promising, then everything about it petered out. The Harry Potter meets techie vibe began ok, but got tedious. A romance started off interestingly, then quickly wallowed. The same for the author's philosophical ruminations on book love in all its forms: print, ebook, audio. Be it characters, settings, or situations, all started interesting, then turned into duds. I skimmed through the last third, finished it only because I'd started it.

The audio book reader, however, ...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Janet rated it it was amazing

Shelves: debut-novels, book-club-pick, 2012, 2012-libfavs

This is not a review, it's a love letter.

I adored this book. Why? It had a likeable narrator in Clay Jannon, a mysterious bookshop, romance, puzzles, secret societies, a San Francisco locale (with side trips to New York), and a sly sense of humor. The theme of Old Knowledge (books) vs. Internet knowledge gave the author the chance to slip in scenes at Google, a museum dedicated to knitting overrun by first graders, information about fonts, a character who made his fortune creating realistic 3-D ...more

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May 01, 2018 Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen) rated it did not like it

Shelves: contemporaries, didn-t-finish

DNF @ 48%

Just... so very boring.

There's literally a MAGIC BOOKSTORE this should be AMAZING. But instead it wastes time on:

- a protagonist so boring I've forgotten his name
- a manic-pixie-nerd-girl who's soooo down-to-earth guys (she seriously only owns 10 replicas of the same shirt because she just DOESNT care about fashion and she works for Google, she's just super chill, okay??)
- random my-roommates-are-making-out-drama
- a bunch of technobabble about how because of Kindle and Nook books will ...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Ms. Smartarse rated it liked it

Shelves: magical-realism, mystery, contemporary

There was something odd about this book. Not entirely sure what exactly, but I'm thinking it might've been the setting. Waaaay too close to... my real life, so to say. I'm used to stories that happen in either a far-off realm, or a place I've been to, but with just the right twist to make it seem "fantastic". This one seemed all "huh, I could actually see it happening".

As a computer programmer myself, I was lucky enough to go on a business trip to Silicon Valley, where I also visited the Google There was something odd about this book. Not entirely sure what exactly, but I'm thinking it might've been the setting. Waaaay too close to... my real life, so to say. I'm used to stories that happen in either a far-off realm, or a place I've been to, but with just the right twist to make it seem "fantastic". This one seemed all "huh, I could actually see it happening".

As a computer programmer myself, I was lucky enough to go on a business trip to Silicon Valley, where I also visited the Google campus in Mountain View ... among other things *cue proud chest puffing*

For all that I'm not a big fan of fiction with techie characters, this book actually depicted them quite well. The visit to Google, as a guest of an employee, was rather similar to my own experience. I, of course, can't vouch for the validity of the book scanner or the entire process of putting it on hold, but a quick Google (hah!) search tells me it's a real thing.

I might have even seen something like Mr. Penumbra's book store. There are lots of cramped "mysterious"-looking second-hand bookstores in the San Francisco section of my long-term memory. Though they may not have been 100% like Mr. Penumbra's, I recall them having been close enough to serve as fodder for my imagination during reading.

Now on to what I didn't like:
So Clay, a designer with virtually no coding knowledge, learned enough Ruby( in a few days!) to build a 3D model of a bookstore, aaaand also animated it to observe possible patterns as to how they were being bought. FINE, so he might've been some undiscovered genius, who just needed the right incentive to unleash his inner geek. The animation pattern analysis though... not very likely.

Next, there was just something off about the narrative style. It was easy to read... but it just didn't feel right. Perhaps it was the narration style that didn't really fit the book's theme? I couldn't say precisely now, but it just bothered me enough to affect the flow of reading.

And last but not least, the epilogue. Ideally someone would just burn it, lest it starts breeding! I haven't been practicing my eye-rolling techniques so much since I watched... well never mind that now. Suffice to say, that the book would've been much better without it.

As mysteries go, it's not a very exciting one, but I really liked Clay's resourcefulness. It seemed quite realistic too, and made me think "hey, that's actually a real-world solution that could work". So I guess it's not a complete loss... overall. ...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Priscilla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Initial thoughts:

1. Loved Clay. He is wonderfully funny, and geeky. His journey throughout the story was fantastic.
2. Loved the combination of new and traditional, young and old. Seeing ideas, and characters that are different and opposite come together.
3. Lot's of wonderfully geeky elements. Design, typography, technology, books, and other very nerdy things. It was AMAZING.
4. I really liked and appreciated how the characters and the story was grounded in reality. There are a lot of elements ...more

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Feb 22, 2014 Jennifer Masterson rated it it was amazing

4.5 Stars. Over a year ago, before I was on Goodreads, I tried to read this book and gave up on it early on thinking it was for a much younger group of readers. I also had too much going on and sometimes when you have a lot going on in your life it can impact everything, including what you're reading! After reading so many other people's glowing reviews I finally decided to give it another go. This time I read the whole book and by the 1/2 way mark I was hooked! Loved loved loved it! It was so ...more

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Aug 22, 2016 C. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: riedel-titles-2016

I recognized this book was special immediately. Unless Robin Sloan fumbled the writing, I knew I would love it and award five stars. When an oeuvre is distinct from anything that has come before, you can't guess what it will entail. This quest didn't delve into the metaphysical realm I envisioned. Its ultra modernity was unexpected but so too, its stunningly successful balance with elements of antiquity. Where Robin did steer us does not disappoint. I whizzed through his novel with the elation a ...more

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Nov 15, 2015 Kelly rated it liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, bibliophilia, fiction, owned

This review originally appeared on my blog, Shoulda, Coulda Woulda Books.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour-Bookstore is a book with a perfectly charming premise and a number of flaws. The premise, is, of course, what landed it on my to-read list nearly two years ago, and, I’d imagine, the list of many another bibliophile. The book centers on the new night-shift employee at a 24-Hour-Bookstore in San Francisco, who has taken the job after being laid off from his tech-start up in the Great Recession of the ...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Rachel rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2013

What started out as an engaging novel about a charismatic bookstore became a nearly 300-page ode to Google and Millenial entitlement. Google was really the main character here. The Google butt-kissing started early, and served to make it so that I never once found Kat appealing or endearing. In fact, I felt that she was just a big, whiny child playing with shiny toys and having a temper tantrum when the things around her didn't go exactly her way. She basically represents everything about my What started out as an engaging novel about a charismatic bookstore became a nearly 300-page ode to Google and Millenial entitlement. Google was really the main character here. The Google butt-kissing started early, and served to make it so that I never once found Kat appealing or endearing. In fact, I felt that she was just a big, whiny child playing with shiny toys and having a temper tantrum when the things around her didn't go exactly her way. She basically represents everything about my generation that is awful, and is the reason why so many of us are struggling to find jobs (NOT at Google where, quite honestly, I had been desperate to work until I read this book). Our generation has a terrible reputation, and Sloan does a great job showcasing why, frankly, I wouldn't want to work with us either.

The vast majority of the characters in this book feel entitled to knowledge that they haven't earned. Much like the ill-fated scientists in Jurassic Park, they stand on the shoulders of those who came before and - having skipped the hard work that requires patience and discipline - wield their new power with tremendous immaturity and disregard for the hard work of others. They also seemed to forgo adherence to things like laws, binding contracts, and the general principles of ownership since, you know, basic and understandable societal rules are in the way of what they want. (view spoiler)

I also started to get sick of all these extraordinarily talented - and, in most cases, very wealthy and highly educated - characters spending all this time standing around and patting each other on the back for being so wonderful. The ending would really only be possible for super-rich, talented, and connected folks, not the average person looking for work or struggling through life in SF, a reality faced by myself and many of my friends every day. Most of us don't have rich friends to bail us out when we get stuck in crummy, going-nowhere jobs after plunging ourselves into debt for our now-useless degrees. (view spoiler)

This book, while initially promising, was really a love note to entitlement and privilege. It left me feeling angry about the state of the world, especially the state of the city I cherish so much; a city where now, students can't afford to live even in basement "apartments" because these start-up tech industry folks will pay out the butt for them, so rent has been blown sky high.

Screw you, Sloan, for trying to paint some sort of jaunty, sympathetic portrait of these hapless, childish, selfish idiots who are making life utter hell for the rest of us by sucking so hard at caring about anyone but themselves. It was also especially revolting to see the rampant nepotism of start-ups (which has screwed so many of us out of positions we've worked hard and studied hard to fill) played off as some cute, meaningful artifact of extra-best-friendship. This book encapsulates everything that sucks about SF right now, everything that sucks about my generation, in a 300-page nutshell.

So, unless you want to read about some uber-privileged hipsters making all their dreams come true with loads of money and unearned knowledge, I suggest you take a hard pass on this one. ...more

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Oct 15, 2013 Lois Bujold rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: pretty much anyone

Recommended to Lois by: various internet reviews

Good first-person voice, and through it, characterization. The narrator/protagonist has a head I enjoyed spending time in.

This is a book both from the 21st century, and that delights in the 21st century, an incredibly welcome change from all the grimdark political dystopias out there at present.

They sly explorations of the differences between a map and a territory, analog and digital, reality and its representations, (not to mention the past, the present, and the future, tho' I am reminded that ...more

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Mar 17, 2017 Diane rated it liked it

This was a fun techno-bookish-mystery. It follows a web designer named Clay who loses his job due to the Great Recession, but he finds work as the overnight clerk in a 24-hour bookstore in San Francisco called Mr. Penumbra's. Clay notices some odd patrons at the store, and he's intrigued by the strange old books that are stocked there. Soon he's trying to solve the bookish mystery with the help of a friend who works at Google, and they get entangled in a secret society that goes back hundreds of This was a fun techno-bookish-mystery. It follows a web designer named Clay who loses his job due to the Great Recession, but he finds work as the overnight clerk in a 24-hour bookstore in San Francisco called Mr. Penumbra's. Clay notices some odd patrons at the store, and he's intrigued by the strange old books that are stocked there. Soon he's trying to solve the bookish mystery with the help of a friend who works at Google, and they get entangled in a secret society that goes back hundreds of years.

Besides the secret society, the novel also features a book-within-a-book plot involving a beloved fantasy series, a mythical font designer, Clay's flirtation with a quirky girl named Kat, and some colorful friends, including guys who create props and special effects for movie studios. The writing was cute and fast-paced, and overall this was a light, entertaining novel that made for a good vacation read. Readers who like bookish mysteries will probably enjoy Mr. Penumbra's.

Sidenote: I took this book on a recent trip to San Francisco, and because I had a hardcover copy, I had removed the jacket to protect it from wear and tear. I hadn't looked at the author's photograph, so when I started reading the book, I saw the author's first name, Robin, and mistakenly assumed it was a woman. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the jacket that I noticed Robin was a man. As I reflected on my reading, I realized there were a few story points that I thought had been odd for a woman to write. (For example, one of Clay's friends designed computer software to depict women's breasts, and there were several boob jokes in the novel.) It made me wonder how often readers make assumptions about an author based on gender without even realizing we're doing it.

Favorite Quotes
"San Francisco is a good place for walks if your legs are strong. The city is a tiny square punctuated by steep hills and bounded on three sides by water, and as a result, there are surprise vistas everywhere. You'll be walking along, minding your own business with a fistful of printouts, and suddenly the ground will fall away and you'll see straight down to the bay, with the buildings lit up orange and pink along the way."

"This girl has the spark of life. This is my primary filter for new friends (girl- and otherwise) and the highest compliment I can pay."

"The buzz about Google these days is that it's like America itself: still the biggest game in town, but inevitably and irrevocably on the decline. Both are superpowers with unmatched resources, but both are faced with fast-growing rivals, and both will eventually be eclipsed. For America, that rival is China. For Google, it's Facebook."

"Old books are a big problem for us. Old knowledge in general. We call it OK. Old Knowledge, OK. Did you know that ninety-five percent of the internet was only created in the last five years? But we know that when it comes to all human knowledge, the ratio is just the opposite — in fact, OK accounts for most things that most people know, and have ever known."

"This is one of the things you learn at Google. Stuff that used to be hard ... just isn't hard anymore."

"There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care. All the secrets in the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight ... Your life must be an open city, with all sorts of ways to wander in." ...more

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Jun 15, 2013 Ferdy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: decent-secondary-characters, kind-of-entertaining, wtf, blah-romance, boring-main-characters

Spoilers

I didn't read any reviews or even the synopsis for this - I bought it on a whim because I liked the cover and title. That'll teach me to be wild and spontaneous. No more bonkers book buying for me, I've learnt my lesson.

I thought Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore would be a charming, quaint and lovely tale about an old bookshop that's open all night and visited by bookworms, lonely night-owls and other oddball characters. I thought a jobless-down-on-their-luck-underdog type character Spoilers

I didn't read any reviews or even the synopsis for this - I bought it on a whim because I liked the cover and title. That'll teach me to be wild and spontaneous. No more bonkers book buying for me, I've learnt my lesson.

I thought Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore would be a charming, quaint and lovely tale about an old bookshop that's open all night and visited by bookworms, lonely night-owls and other oddball characters. I thought a jobless-down-on-their-luck-underdog type character would start working at Penumbra's and thus their life would change, lessons would be learnt, friends would be made, and people from different walks of life would come together and share their passion for books and a special little bookstore. Alas, that wasn't the case.

Instead I got secret cults, quests for immortality, ancient codes and other such nonsensical nonsense. It's my own fault really, if I'd bothered to do the tiniest bit of research, I wouldn't have been expecting a quirky tale about a 24-hour bookshop. I still rather enjoyed it but it wasn't quite as homey, booky and wonderful as I'd thought it would be.

The characters were a bit of a mixed bag. The main character (I've already forgotten his name… Let's call him Bob) was boring and geeky. I think he was meant to be endearing and likeable but he was just plank-like and dull. Bob's love interest, Kat, was annoying… Especially when she kept banging on about life and immortality and whatnot. I'm guessing she was meant to be a restless, profound, eager spirit of some sort but she just didn't work for me as a character.
There were a few characters that I genuinely liked - Neel, Penumbra, Mat, Lapin and Tyndall. They had more attitude and charm than what's his name and Kat.

The main characters and the narration reminded me quite a lot of John Green's books. Bob was basically an older version of John Green's male protagonists, and Kat was an older version of his female characters. Only Bob and Kat weren't quite as annoying and pretentious as Green's geeky male characters, and 'deep' female characters.

The mystery of the bookstore with its strange patrons, bizarre rules and weird customers intrigued me at first… But I lost interest once I found out those things were all related to a secret cult whose mission was to decode some old book and thus live forever… It was all so far-fetched, unrealistic and ridiculous.

I disliked all the computing/programming/google talk — none of those things interest me.

All in all, I was mostly entertained. I probably would have liked it more if I'd actually known what the book was about before starting it. ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Melissa Rochelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2012, arc

August 2012: (First, I never read the short story because by the time I discovered it I already knew it was a novel so I didn't want to ruin anything for myself...you know, just in case. Now that I've finished the book, I'll read the story.)

The book -- AMAZING. I loved it. Really. It's chock-full of bibliophile goodness. This is up there with Ready Player One geeky goodness.

Clay finds himself unemployed (like many these days) and one day stumbles into a quirky bookstore looking for a late-night ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
resolution - decoding mystery	34	921	Oct 03, 2019 06:01AM
Reader's Choice B...: July - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore	3	15	Jul 23, 2019 06:52PM
Play Book Tag: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan- 4 Happy Stars!	6	15	May 11, 2019 07:12PM
How influenced was this book by Shadow In The Wind?	1	19	Jan 01, 2019 02:51AM
Imagination Running Out	1	24	Nov 30, 2018 10:56AM
Play Book Tag: [Decathlon] Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore By Robin Sloan 4 stars	8	29	Sep 04, 2018 06:21PM

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About Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan

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Robin Sloan is the author of the novels Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough. He grew up near Detroit and now splits his time between the Bay Area and the internet.

Books by Robin Sloan

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“Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines -- it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.” — 569 likes

“After that, the book will fade, the way all books fade in your mind. But I hope you will remember this:
A man walking fast down a dark lonely street. Quick steps and hard breathing, all wonder and need. A bell above a door and the tinkle it makes. A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.” — 336 likes

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