I really had no idea what this book was about when I decided to listen to it. It turned out to be a wry, funny story about an unemployed 20-something kid named Clay who goes to work at the only job he can find: a night clerk at a 24-hour bookstore. The bookstore is very strange. There are actual books to be sold in the front, but most of the store is filled with coded gibberish that all sorts of strange people rush in to borrow, some sort of secret book club. The story gets weirder and weirder as it goes along, and draws in not only Clay and the bookstore’s owner, Mr. Penumbra, but Clay’s roommates Matt and Ashley, his best friend Neil, and a new girl he really likes who works for Google – Kat.

My favorite thing about this book was the humor. I laughed the whole way through it. I also liked the slow development of friendships. I liked the flawed but lovable characters. It wasn’t a mind-blowing book or anything, but it was a really fun read.

Not much else to say than that. I liked the audio production, read by Ari Fliakos, who had a great way of giving irony to the lead voice, and did all the other voices really well. It was interesting to listen to the interjections of cassette-taped audiobook of the Dragonsong chronicles, spread throughout the book. The only negative was that Mr. Fliakos apparently doesn’t know how to say JK Rowling, and pronounced it like “Howling” instead of “Bowling.” That’s very minor though. 😀

Fun book!