Monday, June 11, 2018

Mr Penumbra's 24-hr bookstore - Robin Sloan

Saw this on a books about books list and thought it seemed interesting enough. Alas, i was a tad disappointed. The writing felt a little amateurish and I just skipped parts of the book, as they just werent that engaging. Overall though, the plot was not beyond redemption, and made for an entertainingly enough read.
Clay Jannon was hired as a clerk at an obscure little bookstore in San Francisco owned by an eccentric Mr Penumbra. The store sees few patrons and the few that came in, Jannon was tasked to record every little detail about them in a logbook. The patrons were like the owner, eccentric, and were part of a book club. Books were checked out and no money was transacted.
Jannon was told never to look at the books borrowed by the patrons but he could not resist one day and peeked. The books were filled with gibberish. Jannon decided one day to model the bookstore in his computer and sequenced the borrowing patterns of the patrons. He found to his surprise that the sequence of the book borrowing, actually led to a portrait of the Founder of obscure bookstores around the world. Penumbra and him then embarked on an adventure to an underground library in New York city to decode the codex vitae, which was believed to resurrect the dead members of the book club.
At the end of the adventure, involving google programmers, the truth was finally revealed. The real message was not found in books but on a letter punch for a popular font Gorritz-whatsitsname.

Ok actually now that I think of it, it's quite a silly read.

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