Welcome Back!

Greetings, fellow readers, and happy Labor Day! After a (much too long) hiatus, I am back to blogging. Don't think that while my internet presence has lain idle my reading life has ground to a stop; on the contrary, I read (and bought) more books this summer than I have in years.

This summer, I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of studying abroad at Cambridge University in England. Between tea, bookstores, and outdoor Shakespeare festivals, this girl was in heaven! There was so much to love about England, but one of my favorite memories is of a quiet Sunday afternoon in London when I walked from Russel Square and the British Museum (near Virginia Woolf's old haunts) to Charing Cross Road and Foyle's, the greatest bookstore I have ever set foot in. Picture three stories of books in every language on every imaginable subject, add to that a near-religious sense of awe and wonder, then throw in the heady intoxication brought on by the smell of fresh paper and ink, and what do you get? A bona fide case of what super-librarian Nancy Pearl would call Book Lust. Let me tell you, I had it bad!

Two and a half hours later, I staggered out of Foyle's with enough books to sink a battleship and a smile wide enough to build a bridge across the English Channel. I began reading my treasures that night, and, I'm happy to say, I'm still reading them.

Though I read a superhuman amount over the summer, one book stands out above the rest:

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Thanks to my very excellent mother, who, upon realizing that I had over 24 hours worth of air travel in store, granted me uninhibited access to her Audible account, I boarded the plane departing the U.S. with the tale of Clay Jannon, graphic designer turned bookstore night clerk, and his band of sometimes eccentric, always adventurous friends loaded onto my iPod. Clay discovers that the bookstore where he works is actually part of an international secret society known as the Unbroken Spine. With the help of his friends, Neel and Kat, he works at the crossroads of books and technology to unlock the mysteries of the coded volumes housed within the store.

This book has it all: dragons, Google, immortality, and a quirky cast of characters who charm their way into your heart. The story itself is flawed--the narrative loses focus in the middle chapters and is weakened by an unnecessary epilogue--but by the time I realized this, I was too caught up in the story to stop.

If this isn't enough incentive for you to read it, the book glows in the dark. Seriously. This is even more awesome once you read the book and realize the significance of the illuminated shelves.

I listened to Mr. Penumbra twice over the summer and would recommend it to anyone who loves books about books.

That's all I have for now; stay tuned for more Shelf Life and literary adventures in the new school year!

Happy reading,

Anna