Visit Robin Sloan’s website at www.RobinSloan.com to read about the author, books he loves, video about books he loves, and new stories…
UPDATE: Robin was kind enough to Skype with our book club! He was friendly and generous and shared that his idea for the book came from a misread Twitter post where a friend tweeted that they just saw a sign for a 24-hour bookshop but it was really a 24-hour book drop :(. We all agreed that we would love a 24-hour bookstore as well!! Also, he shared that he has, indeed, been down a secret staircase. We are all jealous. Thank you to Robin for sharing so much time with us and for his great stories and insights.
IT MAKES YOU GO HMMMM: This book is a a great warm weather read, but also asks some big questions, in a fun novel, about technology. Can technology shortcuts make us miss the chase and process of learning? Do we, as a society, believe so much in technology the the mystery of the universe is no longer outside of our grasp – and if so, what do we loose?
BOOK SUMMARY: 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. (From Amazon)