I am a BIG fan of books about books, so naturally, I’ve tried to add every single one I can find to my TBR. Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore is the most recent literature-loving book to fall into my lap and I really enjoyed it!
Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
Themes: Fiction, Mystery, Book Lovers, Coding, Marketing
Reading Format: Paperback
5 STARS // 9 CAWPILE
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This book is a book lover, marketers dream. I’ve never read a book before that combines my love of books with my day job of digital marketing. Clay Jannon was working in marketing but has now progressed his way to a job at the mystery bookstore that is open through the night and has some very strange books and customers. As any curious bookseller would, Clay does some digging and discovers a whole new side to this little bookstore.
Part of this book is Clay trying to keep the bookstore afloat using his marketing knowledge and love for one very specific book series. I loved this simple storyline at the start of the book. It felt good to actually know what Clay was going on about when he started talking about Google Ads etc, I felt like I could get involved in the book that little bit more. The plot develops quite a lot from this point on involving the mystery of immortality and getting various characters involved along the way. The way this book pulled in pop culture with its mentions of Google and eReaders and iMacs was just brilliantly done. It didn’t remove me from the world of the book but made me feel even more part of the story. Again the nod to the world of marketing made me feel like I was a very specific type of reader to suit this book. Sometimes you just read a book and it feels right and it just clicks and this book was like that for me.
I really loved the way the characters all got swept up into this plot. Everyone had a connection to Clay and he gained their trust to get them to help him discover what the secret of the bookstore really is. I really enjoyed the sense of comradery as people who had never met each other before clubbed together and all tried to work towards one goal. We had characters of all backgrounds and ages becoming seamlessly engaged with each other without holding back. Everyone had their own quirks and no one was in any way average. It felt like Sloan had fun when writing these characters and I certainly had fun reading about them.
The setting of the bookstore felt so familiar and cosy. I have such a strong image of it in my head that could be totally inaccurate to what Sloan thought about when writing. But that is the beauty of a book, no reader will read the same book. The bookstore to me felt so tall and eerie and almost fantasy-like but in a brilliant and cosy way. We don’t leave this bookshop setting for a while and the author does make it feel like home in his use of this setting as the base of the book and the place where we the reader feel safe.
Overall I really loved reading this book and in the process of writing this review have upped my 4.5-star review to a 5 because this captured my heart and I really enjoyed every page.
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I read this book years ago and I remember really enjoying it.
Hooray, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!