What a difference two thousand years make! Since finishing The Dovekeepers, set in 70 C.E., we are now reading Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, set primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012. This book is part Da Vinci Code and part 1984, with a "dash" of Dashiell Hammett thrown in for good measure. It's a book for book lovers in all forms, but certainly with a nod to those of us struggling with the hardback or e reader question. As a fan of both, I am reading it in hardback form, enjoing the pages and the glow in the dark cover.
The book starts with our protagonist, walking the up and down streets of San Francisco on a job hunt. Clay Jannon has an art-school thesis on typography, a year at a bagel shop and a three-page website, but needs a job. He has searched on line and found nothing, but has turned to "paper" and now has several want ads crumpled in his pocket. It is a HELP WANTED sign that finally lures him in. The window sign in Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore reads:
HELP WANTED
Late Shift
Specific Requirements
Good Benefts
The interview is set and Mr. Penumbra starts Clay on his job skills test, on the top of a ladder, searching for a book that is "about 150 percent of one arm length to my left. Obviously I need to return to the floor and scoot the ladder over. But down below, Penumbra is shouting, "Lean, my boy! Lean!" And wow, do I ever want this job."
And off we go....
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