This book has promise
Jan. 13th, 2013 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI've started reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, and it's quite the page-turner. It's also full of dry geek/nerd wit like this passage from when the slightly bored protagonist has started building a 3D model of the store:
"It's crude -- just a bunch of gray blocks slotted together like virtual LEGOS -- but it's starting to look familiar. The shape is appropriately shoe-boxy and all the shelves are there. I've set them up with a coordinate system, so my program can file aisle 3, shelf 13 all by itself. Simulated light from the simulated windows casts sharp-edged shadows through the simulated store. If this sounds impressive to you, you're over thirty."
The only downside is that I'm trying to knit while I read - I'd like to finish this block tonight, and preferably finish the blanket before A Tangled Skein closes for good - and reading paper books while knitting is a bear. The big advantage to ebooks is that you don't have to prop them open and you can tap with a knuckle to turn the page; you don't even have to put the knitting down. But I haven't gotten far enough along in the book to be sure that I want to own an ecopy.
"It's crude -- just a bunch of gray blocks slotted together like virtual LEGOS -- but it's starting to look familiar. The shape is appropriately shoe-boxy and all the shelves are there. I've set them up with a coordinate system, so my program can file aisle 3, shelf 13 all by itself. Simulated light from the simulated windows casts sharp-edged shadows through the simulated store. If this sounds impressive to you, you're over thirty."
The only downside is that I'm trying to knit while I read - I'd like to finish this block tonight, and preferably finish the blanket before A Tangled Skein closes for good - and reading paper books while knitting is a bear. The big advantage to ebooks is that you don't have to prop them open and you can tap with a knuckle to turn the page; you don't even have to put the knitting down. But I haven't gotten far enough along in the book to be sure that I want to own an ecopy.
