Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Executive Summary: This makes for a great summer read. It's light and fun, and a really quick read. As both a book and computer nerd, this hit a lot of my buttons.

Full Review
So I have something like 100 books on my “owned and unread” pile. I tend to read a mix of book club reads, just released books, and spur of the moment picks depending on my mood. I'm really bad about working off my backlog. I got this one as a Christmas gift from my sister a few years ago, and it's just been sitting unread on my bookshelf.

I took finally doing this as a group read with my side reads group to finally get me to pick it up. I'm really glad I did. It was a lot of fun.

It's a fairly short book, and I don't have a lot to say about it. The main character is fine, but I never really clicked with him. I liked most of the supporting characters better. For me what really hit home was the idea of this strange little bookshop that was really more of a library than a story.

The other elements that resonated with me were the uses of technology and just the San Francisco setting. My sister lives there, and I've visited her a few times now. There are elements of the city wound throughout this book that I probably would have glossed over had I not experienced them myself. Those things aren't really important to the story's plot, but makes me itching for my next visit.

I thought this book had a nice message, and I was happy with how the mysteries of the book were resolved. It's always refreshing to pick up a book that stands alone, especially one this short and feel satisfied. It seems like everything is stretched out into monster tomes of no less than 3 books. Then again, maybe that's just the result of me reading so much fantasy.

I don't read much contemporary fiction, but this one worked really well for me. I think most book nerds will find some things to like here.