Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore

[shy_magpie]

I absolutely loved this book. I got to see the author at Powell's and have a signed copy of the book. The characters were charming, the settings and scenarios believable, and the descriptions delightful. I would recommended it especially for those of us who love books and technology.

While not sci-fi I want to believe in the world he writes: I want to believe in 24 hour bookstores that are secret fronts for 24 hour libraries. I want to believe in eccentric researchers who present mysterious library cards to the charming workers at these bookstores and demand leather bound volumes at 2 in the morning. I want to believe in Google's book scanners, Hoodoop, and an army of mostly Ethiopian workers who can be called upon at a moment's notice to do what machines can't. I want to believe in FX men who build tiny cities in their living rooms and replicas of nebula in the kitchen. I want Google to be run by a board of PMs picked by algorithms. I want to believe in the table of ascension. I want to believe in Garitzoon, the bound and unbound seekers who live to solve the greatest puzzle they have ever found. I want to believe that every collection that was ever orphaned by a museum that went under is waiting in Nevada for someone to ask for it, on shelves that dance and spin and wait impatiently for you to get out of their path.