Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore was the kind of book that had me hooked at its title. It wasn't what I was expected, but then again I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting.
Upon reading the first 20 pages, I was a bit uninterested. There were a few lulls in the text at some points(mostly the coding talk, which I couldn't understand) and there were some points where I simply found myself getting easily distracted (however, the characters, it seemed, were always just confused as me until the end and that was something I could appreciate). But come upon pages 50-100, well now I just gotta keep going to see how it ends. Upon reaching page 200, I was eager to finish and things quickly picked up from there.
While having some very important philosophical points and fun mysteries, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour bookstore was a fun read that was intriguing and somewhat thought provoking. It was not very intense which is something that I appreciated, given just finishing The Deathly Hallows for the first time. I needed an easy and kind of *shoulder shrug* why not read, and although I initially wanted a great deal more from this book(and still kind of do) it was a break that I didn't realize I needed.
All in all, this book was in the okay-pretty good range, so I'd give it about 3.5 stars. But from the chapter "A Really Big Gun" and on, I was fully focused and had to stick along for the ride. From "A Really Big Gun" and on, I'd give it a solid 4 stars.
If you are looking for something with similar energy alongside this book, I'd recommend An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.