Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

My friend Stephanie recommended this book to me and it's a really awesome book! I wish it were non-fiction, but it is not to be.

As the title implies, this novel is about a bookstore. But, as the title does not imply, this story is also about a secret society involving the deciphering of a fairly old set of books. In fact, it kind of deviates from the bookstore halfway through and starts to go after the mystery side.

In fact, at its very core, this novel is looking at technology and books and how they interact with one another. Technology, and even Google, is featured very prominently in the book. And no, it's not about the kindle or any other ebook reader (although they are mentioned).

Come to think of it, this novel has fairly little to do with a bookstore. It starts with a bookstore, detours into a mystery, solves the mystery (and the protagonist gets the girl, maybe) and then ends with the bookstore again.

Oh, and I forgot to talk about the characters! There is the titular Mr Penumbra, who sounds like a really cool bookshop owner - I'd love to visit his bookstore! And then there is the protagonist, Clay. Clay was a web designer that got laid off and ended up working at Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore as the night clerk. His love interest is Kat, a Googler who meets Clay when she's targeted by Google's incredibly specific ads. And then there are Clay's roommates, his best friend Neel and a few other characters that make this book lively and populated.

An interesting setting, a mystery and a whole host of characters. This is my kind of book, and I'm really glad that I was recommended it.

Long Reads #16

This time, I've been reading mainly book-ish articles.

Don't Support Your Local Bookstore by Farhad Manjoo - It makes a very interesting case of why you should not shop at an Independent Bookstore. Personally, I like the limited selection, because it's a very good way to browse and find something completely new. Something that rarely happens on Amazon (I may find something different from what I intended, but it all starts with a search term)

Amazon's Jungle Logic by Richard Russo - This is actually the article that sparked Don't Support Your Local Bookstore as a response. So you can tell, it's a defense of the bookstore. Or rather, the defense of the reputation of the bookstore, as more than merely a place for buying books.

They Cracked This 250 Year-Old Code, And Found a Secret Society Inside by Noah Schatman - It's a really interesting article on how computers can be useful. And of course, teamwork too. It's also a really indirect case for inter-disciplinary coorperation - there's no one expert who has the definitive word.

Don't Look for e-Literature in Novels by Dan Holloway - I will be the first to admit, I don't understand most modern Literature. Or Modern Art. Personally, I prefer the times when (to quote Clarice) "pictures showed people or even things" (approximate quote). The same goes for novels, I like the narrative to be understandable. I still haven't mastered Ulesyss by James Joyce. It took me very long to read Mrs Dalloway, and I still don't understand it. In fact, one of my favourite authors to study is Shakespeare. But if you like the new styles of writing, give this article a go.

The Story Behind a Non-Fiction Novel  by George Plimpton - Can Nonfiction be Literature? Well, I studied The Art of Travel for Literature so I'm guessing yes. And if you think about it, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is an awesome autobiography that utilises fiction techniques. So the answer is definitely yes. The article gave me another book to look up: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

My 6,1288 Favourite Books by Joe Queenan - If you remembered, I reviewed One For The Books by the same author some time back. And after I posted it, Yvonne from Fiction Books posted a comment alerting me to this article. If you haven't read One For The Books (and you should), go look up this article. You can treat it as a teaser for the book.

What articles have you been reading?

Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores Edited by Greg Ketter (ARC)

I'm not a fan of the cover though...
I think it mis-represents the book.

As you can obviously see, I'm a huge huge bibliophile. So when I saw this anthology about stories that feature a bookstore, I had to read it. However, I have fairly mixed feelings about the book. To me, the book had rather weak stories as it's starting and ending, but the middle stories were wonderful! I really really loved them. My favourite stories were:

The Hemingway Kittens: Successfully mixing kittens in a bookstore with science-fiction elements, this makes me want to grow up and start a bookstore with kittens in it! Well, almost. I don't relish the idea of having to clean up and feed kittens everyday. A really adorable story.

Lost Books: It's a ghost story (I mean, there's literally a ghost/undead person in it). But it wasn't scary and was really rather sweet. I enjoyed the idea of loving books through time and space.

Pixel Pixes: A tale with the fey in it! Well, it makes sense that such a story is here, because really, we're all introduced to fairies from books right? This was an entertaining story, and struck the right balance between the traditional fairies and the modern world.

Blind Stamped: Again, this story looks at loving books beyond the physical constraints. It appears that a lot of stories featuring ghosts like to do this. Still, I'm not complaining, I thought it was really well-written, a bit spooky at first but with a really cool ending.

Ballard's Books: Featuring a mysterious shop and a not-so-likable protagonist, this story looks at the idea of changing fate. Personally, I thought the protagonist deserved what was coming to him.

Books: Ahh, something about the addictive-ness of books. One of the creepiest stories, but very well-done. As a tip, don't read this as the last story before you go to bed. Especially if you bed faces a shelf of books. If you're anything like me, your imagination may get the better of you (;

Escapes: Another one of the books-literally-change-lives stories. But I thought it was really interesting. Plus, the author has created an engaging and sympathetic heroine, with a very distinct bookstore. I was really impressed with how the conflict-resolution plot was tightly written into a few pages. One of my favourite stories (along with the kittens)

I Am Looking for a Book.....: A parody of the 'book of power' and it has a protagonist that wouldn't feel out of place in Discworld. I laughed a lot while reading this book, and I thought it was very clever.

The rest of the stories (around 6 in total), I didn't quite understand. That, and I didn't really like the protagonists, made it a bit disappointed with the book. I think, if you're interested in this book, you should borrow it from the library first before deciding if you want to buy it. It's definitely one of those books you can read over and over again, but first, you have to decide if you want to re-read these stories.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

The Secret of Happy Ever After by Lucy Dillon

I choose to borrow slightly less books this week, in order to catch up with my other books. I'm so glad that I picked this one.

The Secret of Happy Ever After revolves around a bookstore. Anna is given the chance at her dream job and run a bookstore leased by her friend Michelle. In the course of the year, many events happen, and they both (predictably) come out better for it.

I think what made this book really great was Michelle. It's easy to write a book that's full of book lovers, so the inclusion of an extremely business minded person like Michelle made for a great contrast. I can actually understand her arguments, and I quite admire some of her tactics - like selling reading accessories (e.g. blankets) along with books in order to boost the profit margin.

But even though this book has a bookstore at the centre, it doesn't actually revolve around it. The main focus are the lives of Anna and Michelle. Anna wants children. Very badly. Instead, she has three (not-so) lovely stepchildren, and her husband intends to break his promise to let her try for a baby. On the other hand, Michelle is running away from her husband, who abused her emotionally.

What I liked about the book was the melding of the two things - the bookstore (which is quite clearly the catalyst for change) and the two ladies. It seems that as the bookshop flourishes (in terms of customers coming in, not sales), the two ladies lives are changed more and more. This isn't a purely bookshop book, there are books about that (I think. I haven't had the chance to read many of them), but the bookshop is prominent. Basically, I like how the bookshop is a large feature of the book.

While I have to return this book, I think I'll be keeping an eye out for it in the future, because I want a copy. After all, one of my dreams is to have my own bookshop. (My other dreams are/were to be a CEO and/or a stockbroker. Yes, I had weird dreams).

Book Shopping(:

I went to visit Aunty Evonne today, and since she now lives at Orchard road, I decided to go to Borders and Kinokuniya afterwards.

Well.... I'm actually disappointed with Borders. How can it not have Agatha Christie or Enid Blyton? I can understand the lack of Enid Blyton, since she's probably less read now, but seriously, Agatha Christie? That is a serious serious omission. But I did buy the latest Sarah Dessen and the Suspect X novel(: (This is what happens when you have a discount voucher that you really want to use)

After that, I really really felt like reading 2:46, which is a book about the Japanese Tsunami. But unfortunately, Borders doesn't have it. Or the other book.

So, I went over to Takashimaya, which has a Kinokuniya bookstore. It's the main branch actually, so it's huge. So huge that I do get lost whenever I go there. Well, they have a good selection of books on Japan (obviously, it's a Japanese bookstore after all), but 2:46 wasn't there, although the other one (why can't I remember the name??) was. Well, 2:46 is the at the Bugis branch. I should have gotten it there when I saw it. Next week then.

Well, I just wish I had the Kinokuniya membership card. I buy books from there so often. (If you know me personally and you're reading this -birthdaywishhinthinthint-

The Devious Book for Cats (But mostly about bookshops)

These past few days, I haven't been reading much, because I (-shock/horror-) ran out of books. I did try to read the Ingoldsby Tales, where "The Hand of Glory" is mentioned, but for some reason, I couldn't find a decent ebook version. After searching (and unsuccessfully searching Kobo and Project Gutenberg), I found a copy from, I can't remember where. But I couldn't finish reading it. I couldn't even start.

But I did try to read the Hand of Glory story and I'm sad to say that I couldn't even comprehend the words used. I'm not sure if it's just really really bad copying or old English. It brings to mind a Discworld Quote, that this is "Old English, before they invented spelling" (I'm probably not quoting exactly). But to Kobo, placing the title (in image format) does not make it an ebook. And if anyone from Project Gutenberg can see this (A girl can hope), please make an ebook version. It was written so long ago the copyright no longer exists(:

But since yesterday was Vesak Day, Rae and I had a day off together (Poly and JC schedules are surprisingly hard to coordinate), so we went to Duxton Road. I "dragged" her to two bookshops (well, one, but the other was on the way). The first one, which I've never been to, is The Pigeonhole, which calls itself a 'bookshop by day, bar by night'. But even though the shop looks really cool, I didn't actually see any books, except here and there. I also understand that they import out-of-print books, but honestly, the books just looked old, and the titles weren't very interesting. We wandered around for a while, but we were so thoroughly ignored and felt out of place that we left.

The other bookshop is an 'old favourite' (though I've only been going there for less than a year), even with the change in staff (although one old staff, surprisingly, remembered my first visit there ^^). The bookshop, Littered With Books, was surprisingly friendly. The staff asked us if they could help several times, and even carried on a conversation about books (what I like, what do I think, etc). Even though most of them were new, their friendliness really impressed me.

Rae and I spent a surprisingly long time there. I was alternating between rummaging the books that were sold at 'special prices' (basically, they're books that are old/with tiny defects that get marked down quite a far bit) and reading random books. One book which I wanted to buy was called Euphemania (which, since Euphe's full name is Euphemia, is so cool), but the price deterred me. Rae, spent her time reading various cookbooks and wishing for the Jamie Oliver one.

In the end, I bought two books, an (old) Agatha Christie one for $3 and a Cecelia Ahern book (slightly old, but otherwise good condition) for $8, which is a really good find. After that, we walked over to Flor, had awesome cakes, realised that no restaurant in Tanjong Pagar was open and after a while, decided to go to her place for lunch.

And it was at her home that I found "The Devious Book for Cats", a book that purports to be a guide for cats to retain their dignity while still being house cats. I really wonder how she always finds such cool books, because this is one of the books that you'd want to read more than one time.

I can actually imagine cats thinking/talking in that manner, and the book was consistently funny (one of my favourite passages though, involves the logic that since Tigers like to swim, and they have stripes. And Zebras like to swim, have stripes and are large, therefore, Tigers are half Zebra half Cat. Another line was where they called the vacuum machine by it's 'real name' the 'Suck Monster'). The way of thinking is such that you can imagine that this is how cats think, and it's hilarious.

If you find this book, buy it immediately(: