Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Book Store

This book doth tickle my fancy.
I'm diggin' this book, yo.

     Notice the difference? Maybe it wasn't the best way to do it, but I'm trying to highlight the difference between old and new, same as Robin Sloane was in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. The plot of this book, at first, is deceptively simple. Clay, down on his luck web developer goes to work at a bookstore, desperate for money to pay his rent. There, he meets Mr. Penumbra (by the way, is that an awesome last name or what? Penumbra usually refers to the partial shadow from an eclipse. It bears thought, I'm not sure if the author is trying to tell me something or what.), the eccentric owner of the bookstore. After a few days of tending shop,Clay begins noticing off people, most of them old, coming into the shop at night.

And there, my friends, the adventure begins.

     I don't want to give away too much of it, but it involves a secret society and an ancient secret that can only be decoded by reading specific books in a specific order. This society has existed for centuries, and it's members have yet to solve the mystery/secret/enigma thingy. However, once Clay catches on to what the odd old people are doing, he introduces something to the game that no-one has thought of using.....COMPUTERS!

     With this, my fascination with Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore increased significantly. I was already drawn in by the likable personality of Clay, as well as his plight of having lost a job and not yet gained a girlfriend , but it was extremely interesting to me that Clay,a web developer, chose to work in a book store. To him, the book store represents everything outdated and obsolete, and he says so; his opinion is that, sad as it is, most books will be available in digital form within the next year. However, reading books, touching them and savoring their unique smell (don't lie, you know books have a smell), he's reminded of why maybe we shouldn't be so quick to try to change things.

Read this book.