Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra is a lighthearted, clever collision between books, googlers and wizardry in a San Francisco bookstore. Our hero and narrator, Clay, is a RISD grad in search of a job. He wanders into a strange bookstore and we're off. Clay has a likable voice, which is one the charms of the book. His frequent second thoughts and pithy observations in the middle of conversations are delightful. He slowly learns that his employer, Mr. Penumbra, is part of a secret society which is trying to solve a puzzle left in a book by an early Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius. Clay was a gamer as a teen, and an avid reader of a fantasy trilogy. So, decoding is an elixir to him and he is hooked. He soon adds his own unorthodox high tech methods to crack the code. Enter google and the googlers, and a good deal of fawning over google. This is redeemed by musings on books, the future of books, the love of books, and, the future of Media. Clay involves his friends in the quest, some high tech and some no tech, an unlikely band, which is a key ingredient in this type of genre. Speaking of "type", a font plays an important role in the story, so, attention bibliophiles. Have fun!