Comments on: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: The perfect nerdish fantasy

By: theperfectnose

theperfectnose — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:25:00 +0000

* Clay’s job TO scale the rolling ladders that run the length not OT.

By: Lachlan Musicman

Lachlan Musicman — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:52:00 +0000

?? Do you pay attention? It’s partly how the BBers pay for the site – through Amazon payment plans. I can’t remember where I saw it, but Cory “sells more books than a small bookstore each year”. Seems fair enough. It’s a decent way to make a living, and is certainly the obvious next step in terms of reviewers/reviewing/how does media pay for itself?

Look at all books and music reviewed on the site and you’ll see that they have amazon links that pay a little back to the author.

By: B E Pratt

B E Pratt — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:29:00 +0000

Cory! Ya really got to lay off the fucking Dan Brown references (and one is just too many). Dan Brown’s crap by itself elevates whoever wrote, “It was a dark and stormy night” instantly into the realm of high (or at least readable) art. Five pages of Dan Brown should be enough to realize that he can’t write his way out of a paper bag, and that is only if you are a masochist.
EDIT: Sorry, but I loath Dan Brown and really want those few minutes back. Then again, there’s some guy called L. Ron that you might like to take a stab at. Battlefield Earth and Atlas Shrugged (for another) would make great books for Hell’s library.

By: John Maple

John Maple — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 02:42:00 +0000

The author uses way too many Google references though. That alone will make this an already dated bit of SF.

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:04:00 +0000

Fun fact: Cory posted this at 6:16 AM on the 16th.

6.16.16…???

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:18:00 +0000

How’s it stack up vs. Ready Player One?

By: Doctor Device

Doctor Device — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 06:38:00 +0000

I remember listening to the short story on Escape Pod. I still like to imagine that the google campus is the way it is described in the story…

By: knoxblox

knoxblox — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:50:00 +0000

Cool! It does!

Now it’s starting to look like some sort of visual code to me. I need to study this…

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:24:00 +0000

I bought a book about a year ago not knowing that it was glow in the dark. Freaked the fuck out of me when I got up to pee in the middle of the night.

By: barbarathistle

barbarathistle — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:36:00 +0000

I LOVED the book. One of the added features is that it the book jacket glows in the dark.

By: arionpress

arionpress — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:44:00 +0000

Robin Sloan will be discussing his new novel on Tuesday, November 27th at 6 pm at the historic Arion Press in San Francisco’s Presidio. (More info on this national treasure and typography heaven at http://www.arionpress.com/ Reception before hand at 5 pm, booksigning to follow author talk.)

By: Erik Schark

Erik Schark — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:01:00 +0000

This started as a short story that was given an audiorecording by the excellent SF podcast Escape Pod back in 2009. If you’re interested, give a listen, although it may kind of ruin the ending of the book (I’m assuming, having not read the book).

http://escapepod.org/2009/09/10/ep215-mr-penumbras-twenty-four-hour-book-store/

By: Xploder

Xploder — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Beats me but linking directly to Amazon caused me to buy it just now.

By: Over the River

Over the River — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:59:00 +0000

a book akin to Cryptonomicon

There is no book, written, or that will be written that is akin to Cryptonomicon. But I think I would like it.

By: knoxblox

knoxblox — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:17:00 +0000

Interesting. I happen to have that book right here, and will be reading it when I’m done with my BB fix.

Edit: 1/3 of the way through, and this is pretty good. Definitely sparked a memory link with Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery, and Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

By: E T

E T — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Why not link to the author’s website http://www.robinsloan.com/penumbra/ rather than to amazon?

By: beemoh

beemoh — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:39:00 +0000

“These books are only ever requested by furtive, weird customers who come in the middle of the night and request them by name”

Yet when I do that, I’m called a pervert.