Sometimes a book is just too close to home. The main character was a web and graphic designer and the story ends up being a mystery solved by an old-fashioned movable cast metal typeface.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is set squarely in current-day Google-obsessed San Francisco. The bookstore is narrow, 3-stories tall and carries books that hold shapes and codes rather than a readable story. A secret society is revealed and dismantled by technology, all with the promise of eternal life.
I like that books themselves were a central importance. This story has been compared to Shadow of the Wind but I think Penumbra is more shallow in story and meaning. It did make me look up the font name Gerritszoon to see if it was real – it wasn’t.
Although I don’t remember the Celestine Prophecy (mid-1990’s) very well, Penumbra had as similar feel to me. This was a quick fluffy read that was chosen as the October book of my book club.
