A prequel novella to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: a young Ajax Penumbra arrives in 1969 San Francisco and takes a job at a strange, half-empty bookshop, drawn into the secret society of the Unbroken Spine and its search for a cipher devised by the real Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius.
Books mentioned in Ajax Penumbra 1969 (13)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov: “It is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation; Claude has spoken of this one often.”
Dune by Frank Herbert: “Midway through, a fuzzy-chinned young man approaches the desk with a battered copy of Dune and a motley handful of coins.”
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner: “Claude wanders through the store, pausing to peruse the table marked SCIENCE FICTION. He finds a book there and brings it to the desk. Stand on Zanzibar.”
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: “The note: “To my darling boy, on the occasion of Lewis Carroll’s 93rd birthday.” Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.”
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe: “Penumbra is halfway through The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; he feels like he understands the overnight crowd better with every page.”
Naked Came the Stranger by Penelope Ashe: “The woman with the portable radio is hoisting a book up above the crowd, jabbing a finger at its cover: Naked Came the Stranger.”
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard: “Felix presents his now preposterously tattered copy of Dune and asks if he can trade it in for The Drowned World.”