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Health & Fitness

Book Nook: Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

When a patron returned Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore and told me that she liked the story but could have done without the fantasy element, I got really excited about this story. I work in a library and am an avid fantasy reader, what could possible be a better book for me than this?

The first thing that struck me about this book is the narrator. He's a typical 21st century hipsterish guy with his Apple computer, graphic design background, and artsy oddball friends. He's also a bit of a techno-geek who likes seraph laden typefaces and DnD (I'm a geek myself, nothing wrong there), but he doesn't strike you as the type of person who loves books enough to end up working in a bookstore. He's an awkward 20something caught in the economic downturn, navigating the fine line between physical books and digital novels.

The story starts off as a bit of a mystery. Who is Penumbra and what is going on in his 24 hour store that doesn't seem to actually sell that many books? What is the secret club that borrow books from the Waybacklist? As the story unfolds, it becomes more of an adventure, straight out of a DnD campaign. This was actually my favorite part of the story; Clay, the narrator, sees himself as the rogue of his party. The cute girl he met is his wizard, and his super rich friend Neel is the warrior. But you're asking yourself, how can a story about a bookstore become a fantasy adventure? All I can say is: secret society, ancient secrets, and lost artifacts.

On a deeper level however, this novel is not about how books are awesome and will outlive computers. Neither is it about the total subsuming of the printed word by digital ebooks. Books are artifacts, containers of old knowledge and will always have their place in literacy, but ebooks and computers have an equally important place. What matters most is how they are used, treated, and loved. The knowledge that is contained in any format is what we, as humans, leave behind; our legacies. Life is finite, and there is no miracle secret that will help us cheat death (at least not yet) but the people who we treasure and the things we create take on a life of their own after we leave this world. The act of creating something that we pour our hearts and souls into can immortalize a look, a gesture, a saying, a tiny, essential bit of that person. Go after your dreams, and never let anyone tell you what you can or cannot achieve.

I would recommend this book to dreamers, computer lovers and book lovers alike. Maybe someone that reads a lot of epic fantasy might like this as a change of pace while they wait for the next in the Shannara series (or gasp, an MTV tv series?) I also think this might be a good book for those reluctant readers out there, especially the guys. Clay is definitely a down to earth dude. He's relatable, not too cerebral, and not overly confident in his abilities to woo women and make boatloads of money. This is the story of the everyman who stumbles into something remarkable and rises to the challenges presented to him.

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