Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1) in Pop Sugar's Annual Ultimate Reading Challenge

Dec 02, 2020 Teresa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: goodreads-awards-2012-fiction

Despite all the unashamed product placement, this was a lot of fun.
Quite a riot, really. Most fun -of this type- I’ve had since Ready Player One, I think, and rather comparable in terms of geekiness.

It has all the elements that for me guarantee an enjoyable carousel ride of a book. A 500 year mystery involving esoteric books. Check. A secret society of strange scholars with strange rules. Check. A dusty old second hand bookstore/library with mysterious and eccentric members. Check. A fellowshi Despite all the unashamed product placement, this was a lot of fun.
Quite a riot, really. Most fun -of this type- I’ve had since Ready Player One, I think, and rather comparable in terms of geekiness.

It has all the elements that for me guarantee an enjoyable carousel ride of a book. A 500 year mystery involving esoteric books. Check. A secret society of strange scholars with strange rules. Check. A dusty old second hand bookstore/library with mysterious and eccentric members. Check. A fellowship of readers looking for clues. Check. A quest to find a knowledge-based treasure. Check.

Add a group of trusted friends with different skills (a là Lord of The Rings) joining the endeavour, and my enthusiasm kept growing and growing, all even within the first chapter.

Mr Sloan combines the actual historical but obscure truth and obscure historical characters, with charming invented oddities, and he had me enchanted for the duration.

What is there not to like? A book for bibliophiles no, scratch that, for true book nerds, computer nerds and even typography nerds! (my favourite). There is even a knitting and yarn obscure museum (in California, no less!) helping the quest. And while the word “quilt” appears in passing, it is a pity that a similar fellowship of nerdy quilters is absent, otherwise, it would have been pure seventh heaven for me.

Anyone who has spent a number of hours growing into the upper three digits scouring the Internet in search of classic and quirky fonts, would understand. It felt like I was handing secret handshakes with all the characters in the book left, right and centre. Even with Clay’s flatmate Matt, who makes cities out of dry pasta.

On these days of very poor concentration, I had to start and discard about 10 books on Audible to find something that could keep my attention, but this one was a winner. I completely loved it, and it kept me amused (while sewing patchwork pieces in my interminable quilt of course) until the end. It also reminded me of thoroughly enjoyable The Name of The Rose, too.

But the thing with Audible, is that you not only need a good story, you also need a good narrator, and Ari Fliakos did a great job. Even at 70% speed, ha ha.

On the other hand, I was very sad to realise that The Dragon Song Chronicles is not a real book series. Because I checked. Of course. The geek!
And if you are wondering what the ubiquitous Gerritszoon typeface looks like? Tough luck. That was another of the invented things in the book. Because I checked. How could I have not?

Highly recommended. ...more

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Jan 07, 2023 JD rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

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Mar 20, 2015 Hayley Shaver rated it liked it

This book is the perfect book for self proclaimed geeks and nerds. It's all about the secrets hidden in plain sight - - in books, in historical odds and ends and friendship. It's a meeting of modern technology and medieval mystery, which sound a little crazy, but it works. I would've given a four star rating for the first half of the book, and a three star for the second, but since I can't, the book as a whole gets a three star rating. The second part of the book seems a little slow at times. ...more

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