Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

"I would never have dreamed that wizards walked among us and we just called them Googlers."  – Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

Do the words “Mechanical Turk”,  “Aldus Manutius”, “Hoodoo”, “Gerritszoon” and Google mean anything to you?  Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, a book glorifying the archaic and the modern, finds the nexus of magic and reality, the point where Bibliophiles and Googlephiles can meet and party, located somewhere in San Francisco. 

With the help of modern thinkers and modern computing tools, the mystery behind the 24 hour book store, where no one EVER BUYS a book, unfolds in snarls and unexpected tangles.  The characters are fun, the friendships deep, and the mystery, compelling. 

This first novel by Robin Sloan is for those of us who like books, modern technology, old mysteries, and disentangling the truth from the fiction in an engrossing story. 

Another great quote from the story – "It's not like we have the same brains as people had 1,000 years ago.  We have the same hardware, but not the same software.  Did you know that the concept of privacy is totally recent? Each big idea like that is an operating system upgrade." 

For more entertaining ideas and quotes, read Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore!

Book Review by Slate – http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/10/robin_sloan_s_novel_mr_penumbra_s_24_hour_bookstore_reviewed_.html

NPR – Learn More about Mechanical Turk – http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/03/05/279669610/post-a-survey-on-mechanical-turk-and-watch-the-results-roll-in