I was on vacation last week and had to stock up on a variety of books for my trip.  One of the gems I found was Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. It is one of those feel good books that are perfect for the beach, or in the middle of a snow storm!

Clay, our narrator, is a suddenly out of work web designer, who in desperation answers an ad for a position as the night shift clerk at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore.  After a very strange interview where he is asked to prove that he is agile enough to climb the ladders to reach books, he is hired.  He begins with great expectations of how he can help the store become more relevant, but soon learns that people rarely come to the bookstore and those who do come aren’t buying books but instead are returning books and borrowing others. As Clay tries to increase sales and uses his skills with social media and web design to increase foot traffic, he becomes more and more suspicious that the store is front for something else. Soon he is enlisting his geeky friends to help him do a complex analysis of the bookstore, its patrons, and the books they are reading and they uncover a web of secrets that extends well beyond Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

Although the book is framed as a mystery it has some very important things to say about reading and our relationship to books, both paper and digital. Even as Clay and his friends share there knowledge about computers, social media, and search engines like Google  the power of the written word and the value of books in preserving what we know is a constant theme.  I found the descriptions of the ways that Clay and his friends harnessed the power of computers social media, and Google to identify, analyze and discover things was fascinating, even for someone like me who needs someone to hold my hand while I use Facebook! Yet, Sloan ( see interview) affirms the essential ideas of reading, learning and valuing books and even though the way books look is changing and will probably change again in the future.

This book is also about friendships. The relationships that Clay has with his friends, the friends he forms with the people that he meets at the store and the friendships that Mr. Penumbra reveals are all a part of the web of connection that makes the story work and when you finish the book you have this satisfied smile on your face and know that indeed the world is a good place after all.

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy:  No, this is a fun book- just enjoy!

Read in e book format.