‘Cool’ is a word you hear a lot in conversation with Mr. Sloan. It’s also a word that pops up often in his first novel, Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a rollicking neo-Borgesian tale about an unemployed San Francisco Web designer who takes a job in a mysterious bookshop only to find himself initiated into the Unbroken Spine, a 500-year-old secret society of bibliophiles on an unexpected collision course with Google.

A New York Times feature on Robin Sloan and his debut novel, Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

Alice Walker in Guernica on being one of the most censored writers in American literature and writing what’s right.

Your next project: how to build a digital library of your print books.