Mr.Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore REVIEW

I don't often do spontaneous book-buys. It's the one area of my life where I plan and plan carefully. This year, my goal is to read more from non-white, non-male authors (doing okay - I just had to quit a book from female Nigerian author because I couldn't get through it...it's a work in progress). 

But even so, I bought this book out of the blue. I found it via some Instagram hashtag one day, went and bought it the day after that, and had it finished within 72 hours of the first time I ever heard of it. It was a whirlwind.

Robin Sloan killed it with this novel. 

Ready Player One is a better nerd-fantasy novel of silliness, but Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore has more honest heart. I loved every character. Every character is a nerd, and I therefore saw a side of myself in each character.

By the way, my sides are painted in Sherwin-William's color Nighttime NerdScape, used for painting Bill Gates' mansion and the inside of Stephen Colbert's desk drawers.

BTW, there were only like, three copies at this B&N. Not cool. 

And my insides are painted with this book's cover. It shows a set of bright books that glow in the dark, and are only conspicuous when the lights are conspicuously out.

So the basic storyline goes that this nerdy nobody gets a job in a weird-kind-of-nerdy bookstore and is taken on a real-life D&D adventure that would rival National Treasure and aspire to be Indiana Jones. He enlists a form of wizard, warrior, and um...Google? What's the D&D equivalent of Google? Greek Gods?

Four out of Five Stars for a book I absolutely had to finish RIGHT NOW and of which I enjoyed every page. Buy it. Read it. Make Robin Sloan write more novels.