I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.
I had wanted to read it for a while because I like the title and I’m a sucker for books about books.
Also, the cover glows in the dark.
(Seriously. I checked.)
Also also, it has my name on the back of the (glow-in-the-dark) cover:
I figured if Nick Harkaway had such lovely things to say about it it would probably be worth reading.
It is.
It is fun and funny and just plain enjoyable. It has mysterious books and thievery and Google (the place!) and it reminded me a bit of Ready Player One in tone. It celebrates both the old and the new in delightful ways.
And it has the honor of being the first book of 2013 to make me cry, completely unexpectedly. Happy tears of that good-book-sucker-punch-to-the-place-in-the-heart-where-the-booklove-lives sort.
Also, it glows in the dark.
(If there was ever a reason to get the paper book instead of the e-version, there you go.)
So since that was my weekend, I was extra delighted this morning to hear that it received an Alex Award, hurrah! (I haven’t read any of the other winners, bad me. More to add to the to-read list.)