Robin Sloan is the author of the book “Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel,†published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book tells the story of Clay Jannon, an out-of-work, tech-obsessed Web designer who ends up getting a job at a San Francisco bookstore, where an adventure ensues. Mr. Sloan, 32, who has referred to himself as a “media inventor,†wrote the book while working at Twitter as a media manager. The following is an edited interview.
Q. Where did you come up with the idea for a 24-hour bookstore?
A. From a tweet! I was walking down California Street in San Francisco, scrolling through Twitter on my phone, when I saw that a friend of mine had just tweeted: “Just misread a sign for a 24-hour book drop for 24-hour bookshop. My disappointment is beyond words.†It just made me smile. I wrote it down, thought about it for a few months, and it eventually became the story of the 24-hour bookstore.
Q. This was a short story before it became a novel, right?
A. Yes. It started as a short story of about 6,000 words. In retrospective, it was really a prototype. I published it on my Web site, robinsloan.com, and made it available on the Kindle. It was based on the same theme: a story of recession, data visualization and romance.
Q. How have your influences from working at Twitter crept into this book?
A. There's a lot of technology in the book. It's not the tools of technology, it's the feelings of technology. I try to describe the feelings you get when you video chat, or the feelings you get from farming a job out to a thousand computers. That all came from my work at Twitter.
Q. You talk about print versus digital in the book. Is print the new vinyl?
A. I don't think so. People think the e-book debate is about books versus computers, but as it goes on, you realize that they actually have a lot in common. One of the things I'm trying get across is that books are just as much technolog y as your iPhone. When books were new, the scene felt just as chaotic and confusing as what's happening in San Francisco right now.
Q. Who is the protagonist in your book? The book itself, or Clay, the main character?
A. Clay is. But he's not a traditional protagonist, because he doesn't have all the answers himself.
Q. Do you prefer to read print or digital?
A. For me, it ebbs and flows. I have been reading a lot of print lately. Print books have an amazing superpower because they don't disappear when you're done with them. Books on the shelf remind you that they exist.
Q. In your book you talk about content overload. How do we solve that?
A. The problem is, all of this content is good. The vision of the Internet as a vast digital wasteland isn't correct. Everything is awesome and we have more stuff to read than we ever have in history. I think part of the answer comes with devices and interfaces: we need to create more devices without distract ions, like Kindles.
Q. You have a lot of current technology references in your book. Do you worry it will age quickly?
A. I think there is a tradeoff inherent in contemporary references. The cost is that the book becomes dated very quickly. The benefit is that people reading it right now feel a dizzying present.
Q. So I notice you have an old Nokia phone. Why?
A. I realized that for me, the iPhone had gone beyond just being a habit. I decided that with the job I have now, which is a full-time writer, it's actually more important and more productive for me to be daydreaming and jotting down notes than it is for me to e-mail or read all my tweets.
Q. Do you miss working at start-ups?
A. I do miss working at Twitter because it is in the center of the zeitgeist right now, and it's fun to be in the middle of the zeitgeist.
Q. The print version of your book glows in the dark. Why?
A. I think in the year 2012, if you want people to forgo this super-convenient Kindle or Nook or iBooks edition, and get a big, heavy print book, you have to give them a really good reason.
Q. Do use your book as a flashlight?
A. Unfortunately it's not that bright. But we're waiting for version 2.0 of the longer-lasting glow-in-the-dark book. It might also run apps.
