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What Members Thought
If you were to draw a Venn diagram populated by The Da Vinci Code, Ready Player One, and Microserfs, well, that would be pretty weird, but in all likelihood Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore would be the point where all three intersect. It's not really like any of those three exactly (though probably closest to Ready Player One, I guess), but there are enough elements of all three in there to make the comparison apt. Pop culture obsessions, talk about technology, the comparison of old vs. new kno
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Ladies and gentlemen, the book that inspired me to create a new shelf -- "who needs sleep". I can't remember the last time I read such a suspenseful book. A couple different times, I gasped or yelled out loud, causing the person next to me to ask if I was okay. I loved this book. I loved the idea of a secret society of special book lovers, I loved the idea of the puzzles and codes, I loved following the conflict of tradition wrestling with the advance of technology and new opportunities... I pre
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A charming novel that feels both high tech and old fashioned at the same time. Clay Jannon is laid off from his job designing web sites and other promotional material for a bagel company in San Francisco and, one day, wanders into a strange bookstore he has never really noticed before. It is narrow and the shelves rise up several stories. Even more surprising, Clay ends up working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore, where his only job is to climb ladders to retrieve strange book
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This was fantastic - it's about lovely old books and the people who love them, and all of the technology available to us today that allows us to digitize them and play with the text. Throw in a secret society and some great characters, and you have a fast-moving, engaging and entertaining read, variously set in an old bookstore, secret society headquarters in NYC, and on the campus of Google. One nice touch was the epilogue, which was done movie-montage style, told from the POV of the main chara
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A secret, a mysterious bookseller, a group of bookish techy friends, and San Francisco. What's not to love in this story?
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Rather slight but enjoyable, especially in audio.
Interesting, with a great message at the end.
What a ride! I love Mr.Penumbra's, from the mysterious bookstore, the cozy San Francisco, the crazy fellowship, the puzzling mystery, and especially the narrator, Clay Jennon. He's phenomenal! I wish there will be more books like this.
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I started off thinking this books would be a fantasy, but it ended up not being that at all. I adored this book. It was completely satisfying.
A new favorite. It is just weird enough to keep you guessing, and the narrator is easy to love.
Oct 03, 2012
Rebecca
marked it as to-read
Oct 12, 2012
Laura
marked it as to-read
Feb 28, 2014
Autumn Skye
marked it as to-read
Jun 03, 2014
Shannon
marked it as to-read
Jul 16, 2014
Leeann
marked it as to-read
