Book: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

Author: Robin Sloan

Reviewer: Keith Morgan, Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning

This intelligent and amusing book features bookstores, 3D modeling software, references Aldus Manutius,  plus a dungeons and dragon fantasy , describes the Gerritzoon font  (standard on all Macs according to the novel) and an ancient conspiracy involving books.  A trip to the Google campus in Mountain View and a visit to the Google Book Scanner add more candy to the mix. There’s also lots of conversation about the differences between reading books and reading on a device, between reading and actually not reading books. Recommended for fans of Zafon’s Shadow of the Wind or the bibliothriller in general.