Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore
by Robin Sloan, Ari Fliakos, Robin Sloane · first published 2012
77% recommend23% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Fun, easy, page-turning novel mixing mystery, humor, and history with Silicon Valley tech touches like Ruby and Hadoop; suits programmers and book lovers wanting an optimistic, nerdy read.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, but after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything; instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends, but when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra
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I'll give a casual read that became one of my favorite books: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan It's got some tech aspects to it since the main character is starting to get into using programming to investigate a mystery and that bit definitely feels motivating. We all have a bunch…
on “Ask HN: What are some good inspirational and uplifting books?” ↗…references for their own sake is particularly clever. But if you like that kind of joke and you like the show, that's great. It's not something I would judge you as a person for. Heck, I'd be happy to suggest Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, if you haven't read it already.
on “Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system” ↗"The Circle", by Dave Eggers. Narrowly edging "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" by Robin Sloan. I've been in tech a long time. I came up in the early 90's when the Internet was a tool for collaboration, meeting new people, and taking down the evil bastards. But since the advent…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗"Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore" - Robin Sloan (a brilliant mix of history, mystery, humour and technology) "The Cuckoo's Egg" - Clifford Stoll (it really is as good as they always say ;-) ) "Winnie the Pooh" - A.A. Milne (delightful,…
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗Seems like most of the discussion here is focused on everyone's own experience with this, but can I just recommend Robin Sloan as a human in general for folks to follow in their lives? His 2 novels, "Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore" and "Sourdough", are both really engaging reads. His 3rd novel is in progress and it seems like it's going to be more of the same quality. He also has a couple of novellas and a bunch of great short…
on “An odd discovery on Spotify” ↗Any one book? Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan Any one series? The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov Other personal favourites include: The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho The Book of Disquet, Fernando Pessoa The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander…
on “Please recommend a book to read. List for 2015” ↗A fiction version of these robots was described in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Penumbra%27s_24-Hour_Bookst...), I suggest you check it out if you haven't already done so, nice, entertaining read.
on “Robots That Serve the World's Largest Library Archives” ↗Robin Sloan is awesome: if you haven't read Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, it's a really fun and easy read. He works Hadoop into the writing! Also something I realized only a year after purchasing the book: it's glow in the dark!
on “Writing with the machine” ↗One such ship appears in the recent book "Ajax Penumbra 1969" by Robin Sloan, the prequel to Sloan's "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore". It's a short fun read.
on “Ships Buried Under San Francisco” ↗One example in the positive column: Robin Sloan has consistently written optimistically about SF, both in Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, and his new novel, Sourdough.
on “The Rise of Dystopian Fiction” ↗…enjoy very much include David Mitchell (Thousand Autumns or Bone Clocks FTW), Cory Doctorow (Makers, Walkaway), Blake Crouch (Recursion), Daniel Suarez (Influx, Delta-V, Daemon), Robin Sloan (Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore). Just to wrap up and repeat what has no doubt been said elsewhere in the thread, fiction in particular is the gateway to empathy and imagination. Reading is a muscle; it gets easier and then it gets…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗…Adventure of the New Golden Gate - https://robinsloan.github.io/perfect-edition/build/web/index... - which I'm reading now. The creator of the project is Robin Sloan, fiction author; I liked his book "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore."
on “Perfect Edition: A lightweight, responsive web e-book template” ↗…(https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1627790365) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095) I recently read: - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel (https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Penumbras-24-Hour-Bookstore-Novel/dp/1250037751) last fall and loved it; diving back into the world of fiction and fantasy. Do y'all have any other suggestions?
on “Ask HN: What are some “damn good” fiction books to read next?” ↗Worth noting that Robin is also the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore [1] that others around HN would probably find pretty enjoyable. I thought it was quite fun. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Penumbra%27s_24-Hour_Books...
on “Julie Rubicon” ↗It's a seriously cool feeling to see worlds collide like this. The first half of his book Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is one of my favorite reads, but I had no idea he was actively programming as well (although it totally makes sense in retrospect).
on “Perfect Edition: A lightweight, responsive web e-book template” ↗