Helpful Score: 2
I read a review of this book and was compelled to read it for myself. This book is really something special and I really enjoyed reading it, in fact I may just read it again in case I missed something in the first go-round. The story is about a man named Clay who finds himself unemployed and seeking a job at Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore. But of course, nothing is what it seems in this bookstore, where certain customers come and go at weird hours and always after the same books. There are a number of characters in this book described so vividly that they all but leap off the page. I don't even begin to know how to classify this book. Parts are humorous, but it's not a satirical piece. Parts seem historical, but it's not exactly historical fiction. It defies description. Parts of the book will leave you wondering..."do they really do that?" There are several places in which the line between fiction and nonfiction, between a cute story and real life are blurred. Read this book. You won't regret it!
Helpful Score: 2
I loved the story, it was great and gave it 5 stars.
I had a lot of fun with the friendship among the characters and how the ingenuity of youth blended with the old Penumbra. I laughed a lot and was rooting for the characters whom I found very interesting and rich in personality
I had a lot of fun with the friendship among the characters and how the ingenuity of youth blended with the old Penumbra. I laughed a lot and was rooting for the characters whom I found very interesting and rich in personality
Helpful Score: 1
This book was right up my alley as tech junkie that still prefers my books to be in paper form. This book is like a Davinci Code for books and using technology. A very quick and well written read.
Helpful Score: 1
An entertaining, quick read. Liked the mystery, liked the friendships of the characters. As an older reader I was more interested in the bookstore than the computers and tech information. My book cover glows in the dark - that is really my favorite part!
A hi-techie puzzle wrapped in enigmas of a 500 year old printer font mystery (sort of), an ancient text (sort of) and a secret society (yes). Not a story about a quaint old bookstore. More a story of data visualization, codes and coding, Googleesqueness, search for immortality, and I'm still thinking about what its about! (which is a plus) It is certainly interesting.
This was a fun action read with some interesting questions about the role of technology as it relates to the acquisition and storage of knowledge. It felt like a mashup of a Dan Brown book and the movie National Treasure with a tech twist.
'A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.'
This is a book for anyone who recognises this feeling, or wishes for this feeling.... this is a book for book lovers! It is an ingenious mystery story, as well as being a fable for our time in the way it discusses what we do with the information that we have. I've never come across a book that exists so comfortably at the intersect between old knowledge (much of the mystery is built around a fifteenth century typeface and it's designer) and new technology (you'll learn more about the inner workings of the internet than you want!). Totally original and well worth the read. It's been a long time since I was so gripped by a book and immersed in the world it creates.
A wonderful read!
This is a book for anyone who recognises this feeling, or wishes for this feeling.... this is a book for book lovers! It is an ingenious mystery story, as well as being a fable for our time in the way it discusses what we do with the information that we have. I've never come across a book that exists so comfortably at the intersect between old knowledge (much of the mystery is built around a fifteenth century typeface and it's designer) and new technology (you'll learn more about the inner workings of the internet than you want!). Totally original and well worth the read. It's been a long time since I was so gripped by a book and immersed in the world it creates.
A wonderful read!
I really enjoyed this book. Entertaining characters. A plot with twists and turns. Prose like writing with snarky characters as well as charming characters.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I read the book, but it kept me listening on my commute in to work.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I read the book, but it kept me listening on my commute in to work.
This is a good book, but if I never read another book that features Google, it'll be too soon.
I thought that the most interesting ones were the customers, but I didn't really connect with any of the main characters. There were a lot of twists, and the old versus new aspect was interesting, but the project seemed sort of arbitrary. To me, it read like a lot like a cozy mystery.
I liked this book enough that I feel like it deserves more of a description, but not enough that I know what else to say about it.
I thought that the most interesting ones were the customers, but I didn't really connect with any of the main characters. There were a lot of twists, and the old versus new aspect was interesting, but the project seemed sort of arbitrary. To me, it read like a lot like a cozy mystery.
I liked this book enough that I feel like it deserves more of a description, but not enough that I know what else to say about it.
Charming! A meld of old world knowledge and the ease of accomplishing things through today's technology. Do you need to learn and remember or simply complete and learn from what you find? Digital vs print etc.
The computer stuff got a little bit complicated, but roll with it, things make sense. The characters are a lot of fun and the story and mystery, once it is rolling, really pulled me in. I was invested!
The computer stuff got a little bit complicated, but roll with it, things make sense. The characters are a lot of fun and the story and mystery, once it is rolling, really pulled me in. I was invested!
This book was fun, interesting, and full of geekiness. Ancient world meets modern technology. Not my usual read, but very enjoyable.
So much fun! I love books, I love puzzles, and I love quests, so this book was absolutely perfect for me! I also liked how it handled the issue of technology. I feel like a lot of times books either tend to idealize tech or dismisses it completely, but I think this book did a good job of showing a sensible middle ground. Yes, tech can do some amazing things very quickly, but it has limits and blind spots and its applications are limited by the imaginations and abilities of the humans who program and implement it.
Also, I'm really happy to have read something with such likable, relatable characters. They were all so fun and quirky.
Also, I'm really happy to have read something with such likable, relatable characters. They were all so fun and quirky.
Sorry to rate so low, but this was so boring. I think this may be a good read for a guy who is socially awkward, an introvert, a reader ect..I stopped reading around Chapter 4 I think it was. I recommend skipping this one.
Was excited to read this book as I love bookstores and love San Francisco.
I really tried to enjoy this book but guess I'm just too old. Many terms about coding and technology went over my head, had to look up quite a few.
I enjoyed Sloan's writing styled look forward to reading other books by him. Just couldn't finish this one. Am sure someone else will enjoy.
I really tried to enjoy this book but guess I'm just too old. Many terms about coding and technology went over my head, had to look up quite a few.
I enjoyed Sloan's writing styled look forward to reading other books by him. Just couldn't finish this one. Am sure someone else will enjoy.
Review first posted on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2013/04/mr-penumbras-24-hour-bookstore.html
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is an adventure story for grown-ups. A children's story with adult characters and relationships. Clay Jannon lives in San Francisco, is out of work and desperately in need of a job. He get a job at a sleepy little book store. It's unclear how the bookstore sustains itself considering the small number of patrons who shop there.
However, he discovers that things are not quite as they seem. Clay begins to investigate, enlisting the help of two friends. A childhood friends who happens to a billionaire. A new girlfriend who happens to be a technology genius working at Google. Add to that a secret society and lots and lots of books and you have the making of a fun and fanciful tale.
I was intrigued by the start of the book - a character trying to find his way in life, a mysterious bookstore, the hint of intrigue, lots and lots of books, and technology. In the middle, I wasn't so sure because the setup was complete, but the adventure hadn't really started yet. And then the adventure began. My ultimate reaction was a little bit of Harry Potter meets Jimmy Neutron.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is an adventure story for grown-ups. A children's story with adult characters and relationships. Clay Jannon lives in San Francisco, is out of work and desperately in need of a job. He get a job at a sleepy little book store. It's unclear how the bookstore sustains itself considering the small number of patrons who shop there.
However, he discovers that things are not quite as they seem. Clay begins to investigate, enlisting the help of two friends. A childhood friends who happens to a billionaire. A new girlfriend who happens to be a technology genius working at Google. Add to that a secret society and lots and lots of books and you have the making of a fun and fanciful tale.
I was intrigued by the start of the book - a character trying to find his way in life, a mysterious bookstore, the hint of intrigue, lots and lots of books, and technology. In the middle, I wasn't so sure because the setup was complete, but the adventure hadn't really started yet. And then the adventure began. My ultimate reaction was a little bit of Harry Potter meets Jimmy Neutron.
Clay finds a job at a bookstore, not just any bookstore, Mr. Penumbras 24-hour bookstore! It seems to be two stores in one; Theres the more-or-less normal bookstore, which is up front, packed in tight around the desk. The other bookstore is stacked behind and above all that on the tall laddered shelves, and it is comprised of volumes that, as far as Google knows, dont exist. Theyre not all ancient. Theyre just allunique. These shelves go up and up seemingly forever and must be accessed by rolling ladders. He thinks of this as the Waybacklist.
SPOILER FOLLOWS!!!!
He is given three rules when he starts work; One: You must always be here from ten p.m. to six a.m. exactly. Two: You may not browse, read, or otherwise inspect the shelved volumes. Three: You must keep precise records of all transactions. But Clay is desperate for a job and thinks, I guess under normal circumstances this would feel like a creepy job requirement. Under the actual circumstanceslending strange books to stranger scholars in the middle of the night-it feels perfectly appropriate.
After a few days at the bookstore, Clay notices that the customers that come in for books from the Waybacklist, dont buy them, they check them out all according to some elaborate kind of plan.
The reader is also introduced to Clays roommates; the beautiful Ashley who owns the apartment and Mat, an artist who is intent on building some kind of model city in the living room. It is Mat who visits the bookstore and dares to open one of the books from the Waybacklist to find it contains an undifferentiated jumble of letters from the Roman alphabet, some kind of code. Just as theyre looking at the book, (Clay could not resist the temptation any longer) we are given a glimpse of a Waybacklist customer; Fedorov: his beard is snowy white and the skin on his hands is papery-thin---but also probably the most clear-eyed. He seems a lot like Penumbra actually. Is this a book club? How do they join? Do they ever pay? But.Penumbra keeps his own counsel, and the message is clear: do your job, and dont ask questions.
The next night, Neel Shah, who is Clays oldest friend, becomes very excited about breaking the code, and talks about how the situation resembles a Rockets & Warlocks scenario, which is the first reference to the book The Dragon-Song Chronicles that is a favorite of both, and the author Clark Moffet.
When Penumbra arrives the next morning, Clay broaches the subject of his friend checking out books from the Waybacklist. Penumbra replies that there is no money involved, the friend must enter into a contract, agree to pay close attention, and be devoted to solving the puzzle. Then Penumbra says a very strange thing to Clay, he says The books present a puzzle .but you know this, my boy, do you not?
Wait a minute, wasnt the second rule to the job NOT to look at the books? Penumbras reaction to Clays admission of looking at one of the books from the Waybacklist seems anticlimactic. It is another glimpse of weird; with rules that arent really rules; rules that are expected to be broken. Penumbra states, there is nothing worse than an incurious clerk. Why then did the author include the rules at all? I think the rules add another dimension of mystery to the story, making it seem even more like a cult, a very weird cult. What is the answer to the puzzle? It will be very rewarding
Grumblegrits is a programmer known only by this name who operates between literature and code, a pirate of sorts, pirate of the written word. Thanks to Grumbles 3D program, Clay comes up with a way to enter the books in the order they are checked out. Enter Kat, a main player in a company known as Google, where technology is unlimited and any question can be answered by the use of computers. Kat helps Clay with the help of a borrowed log book that is scanned by a highly technological book scanner; the order of the books that are checked out creates a picture, a picture of the founder of the club/cult or group of people known as the Unbroken Spine.
From that point, the reader is taken on several adventures in this quest for answers. Into the main bookstore in New York, how each member of the Unbroken Spine files a codex vitae, capturing all theyve learned throughout life, with the threat of having their codex burned if they break the rules of the club, the collision of old-world handwork and the automated digital age, the limitation of the Google decoders, and the simple answer that is found at the end of the book tying it up with Clays favorite author Clark Moffat and his series of books which also solved the mystery of the code.
END OF SPOILER!!!!
The answer the author provided was brilliant.
I am rating this book 4 stars only because there were some parts that were questionable for me, some things that I felt werent necessary for the story. Then again, maybe these parts were necessary after all. Hmmm, maybe Ill have to read this book again!! Maybe I should give it 5 stars after all because only 5 star books make it to my to be readagain list!
SPOILER FOLLOWS!!!!
He is given three rules when he starts work; One: You must always be here from ten p.m. to six a.m. exactly. Two: You may not browse, read, or otherwise inspect the shelved volumes. Three: You must keep precise records of all transactions. But Clay is desperate for a job and thinks, I guess under normal circumstances this would feel like a creepy job requirement. Under the actual circumstanceslending strange books to stranger scholars in the middle of the night-it feels perfectly appropriate.
After a few days at the bookstore, Clay notices that the customers that come in for books from the Waybacklist, dont buy them, they check them out all according to some elaborate kind of plan.
The reader is also introduced to Clays roommates; the beautiful Ashley who owns the apartment and Mat, an artist who is intent on building some kind of model city in the living room. It is Mat who visits the bookstore and dares to open one of the books from the Waybacklist to find it contains an undifferentiated jumble of letters from the Roman alphabet, some kind of code. Just as theyre looking at the book, (Clay could not resist the temptation any longer) we are given a glimpse of a Waybacklist customer; Fedorov: his beard is snowy white and the skin on his hands is papery-thin---but also probably the most clear-eyed. He seems a lot like Penumbra actually. Is this a book club? How do they join? Do they ever pay? But.Penumbra keeps his own counsel, and the message is clear: do your job, and dont ask questions.
The next night, Neel Shah, who is Clays oldest friend, becomes very excited about breaking the code, and talks about how the situation resembles a Rockets & Warlocks scenario, which is the first reference to the book The Dragon-Song Chronicles that is a favorite of both, and the author Clark Moffet.
When Penumbra arrives the next morning, Clay broaches the subject of his friend checking out books from the Waybacklist. Penumbra replies that there is no money involved, the friend must enter into a contract, agree to pay close attention, and be devoted to solving the puzzle. Then Penumbra says a very strange thing to Clay, he says The books present a puzzle .but you know this, my boy, do you not?
Wait a minute, wasnt the second rule to the job NOT to look at the books? Penumbras reaction to Clays admission of looking at one of the books from the Waybacklist seems anticlimactic. It is another glimpse of weird; with rules that arent really rules; rules that are expected to be broken. Penumbra states, there is nothing worse than an incurious clerk. Why then did the author include the rules at all? I think the rules add another dimension of mystery to the story, making it seem even more like a cult, a very weird cult. What is the answer to the puzzle? It will be very rewarding
Grumblegrits is a programmer known only by this name who operates between literature and code, a pirate of sorts, pirate of the written word. Thanks to Grumbles 3D program, Clay comes up with a way to enter the books in the order they are checked out. Enter Kat, a main player in a company known as Google, where technology is unlimited and any question can be answered by the use of computers. Kat helps Clay with the help of a borrowed log book that is scanned by a highly technological book scanner; the order of the books that are checked out creates a picture, a picture of the founder of the club/cult or group of people known as the Unbroken Spine.
From that point, the reader is taken on several adventures in this quest for answers. Into the main bookstore in New York, how each member of the Unbroken Spine files a codex vitae, capturing all theyve learned throughout life, with the threat of having their codex burned if they break the rules of the club, the collision of old-world handwork and the automated digital age, the limitation of the Google decoders, and the simple answer that is found at the end of the book tying it up with Clays favorite author Clark Moffat and his series of books which also solved the mystery of the code.
END OF SPOILER!!!!
The answer the author provided was brilliant.
I am rating this book 4 stars only because there were some parts that were questionable for me, some things that I felt werent necessary for the story. Then again, maybe these parts were necessary after all. Hmmm, maybe Ill have to read this book again!! Maybe I should give it 5 stars after all because only 5 star books make it to my to be readagain list!
I enjoyed this book of books both new and old. I especially liked how Clay and his friends use their skills and interests to solve problems big and small.
Was this written for teens? It has a gee-whiz, golly-gee tone reminiscent of the Hardy Boys, and it is certainly G-rated. The secret everything leads up to is not that interesting. The book was a big disappointment to me.
I didn't dislike the book but I didn't really "like" it either, sort of a 5 out of 10. I could read it but just as easily put it down. Clay didn't grab my interest. Kat was more interesting to me as a character. I was able to marginally follow the tech talk as that sort of thing is of interest to me. The technical aspect was one reason I swapped the book rather than keep it as I knew for certain that my technology-challenged significant other would not enjoy the book at all. And perhaps the most shallow detail of all......the thing I enjoyed most was the glow-in-the dark dust jacket! Cool!
This was just lovely! I loved the characters and the pacing of the story. I was tempted to race through it, but I didn't feel like I HAD to just to get to the end. I loved the mystery of the whole story; it was intriguing and kept me interested without being overdone. I enjoyed going on the adventure with Clay. It was fun meeting his new friends and allies and seeing him rely on allies from his past (and present).
I was a bit disappointed in Kate and how quickly she changed once she got what she wanted. And I hated how cold and sort of rigid--or disbelieving she was once the truth of the puzzle was revealed, even though it was right there in black in white for all to see. And it was almost as if she was jealous that Clay figured it out without her technology--without her! I was hurt on Clay's behalf by her treatment of him.
But what I loved most was Clay's loyalty to Penumbra and solving the puzzle. And that after all the help, the technology and gadgets, he was able to solve it without his huge group of helpers, all on his own and very simply.
I've seen where some people were upset with the ending, or the revelation of the mystery was underwhelming. I thought the simplicity of it all was what made it so perfect, so wonderful. After all that work, reading, scheming, programming, computing, etc., the answer was simple and immortality was achieved in a way.
I was a bit disappointed in Kate and how quickly she changed once she got what she wanted. And I hated how cold and sort of rigid--or disbelieving she was once the truth of the puzzle was revealed, even though it was right there in black in white for all to see. And it was almost as if she was jealous that Clay figured it out without her technology--without her! I was hurt on Clay's behalf by her treatment of him.
But what I loved most was Clay's loyalty to Penumbra and solving the puzzle. And that after all the help, the technology and gadgets, he was able to solve it without his huge group of helpers, all on his own and very simply.
I've seen where some people were upset with the ending, or the revelation of the mystery was underwhelming. I thought the simplicity of it all was what made it so perfect, so wonderful. After all that work, reading, scheming, programming, computing, etc., the answer was simple and immortality was achieved in a way.
