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What Members Thought
I fell instantly in love with this book. In many ways, it's a love letter to books themselves and anyone who loves reading and who could get lost in a bookstore for hours will love this one. In other ways it's about friendship and in other ways about how we see ourselves and our position in the world. In others, it just a plain good story about people I really want to be friends with. Very highly recommended.
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This book rang all my bells: books, old bookstores with intriguing employees, technical nerds and a mysterious conundrum. A very quick read that didn't feel too challenging, though the end did surprise me in a 'follow the yellow brick road/we've been able to go home anytime we wanted to/we've been home the whole time' kind of way.
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This was a charming, fun book. I liked the feel of the modern Bay Area, with characters from Google and ILM. This book seems to hit many modern touchstones: books, code, museums, internet. I recommend this book if you have time, the audio book was fun. It did drive me crazy that the author named the fantasy novel the Dragonsong chronicles, but failed to acknowledge the existence of the Anne McCaffrey books.
Nov 25, 2013
s_evan
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
book-group-books,
fiction
I really liked this fun tale that explored technology, old knowledge (and ways of being), and San Francisco. There were some lines that were remarkably witty or chuckle-worthy, others that were so corny (otherwise it would have ben a 5). I especially liked this as an anti-dote to 'The Circle' since it was a more layered look at technology and the written word (and San Francisco's characters/caricatures) rather than being dystopic.
Also, the cover is so cool: glow-in-the-dark books on bookshelves ...more
Also, the cover is so cool: glow-in-the-dark books on bookshelves ...more
I love this book more the more I reflect. It was a love story to books and bookstores, and it was also a love song for the digital revolution. Mix in a deep respect for gaming, fantasy book theologies, secret societies, and ironic t-shirts, and the tale that swirls in and around Mr. Penumbra's bookstore is pretty much this modern librarian's dream. I'll admit that it took a little while to grow on me, but I ended up loving it.
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It was a 3 most of the way...there were parts that were a bit slow, but I very much enjoyed the ending. I think this writing may not lend itself particularly well to audio.
Dec 28, 2012
Artemis
marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2013
taeli
marked it as to-read
May 13, 2013
Jill
marked it as to-read
Dec 10, 2013
Akilah
marked it as to-read
Dec 23, 2014
Jillian
marked it as to-read
Apr 14, 2015
Nicole Adrienne
marked it as to-read
