Clay Jannon is the protagonist of the novel, Mr Penumbras 24 Hour Bookstore. He is a character who has been affected by the recession in San Francisco and, like many others, is frantically searching the internet for job openings. After looking at numerous job ads online and coming up short, he then take a walk, during which he accidentally saw a help-wanted ad in a 24-Hour bookstore. Entering on impulse and desperation, he immediately meets the shop owner and manager, Ajax Penumbra. Their introduction consisted of, Mr. Penumbra asking Clay questions, but the most enticing, and only unanswered question was – “What do you seek in these shelves?”. Upon getting the job, Mr. Penumbra gave him three employee rules that must be followed: 1. Never be late or leave your shift early 2. Take detailed notes of all customer interactions 3. Do not read the curious-looking leather bound books on the top shelves. For the first month of working the night shift at the bookstore, Clay follows the rules without fail, but begins to notice the customers. A number of frequent, awkward looking customers enter in the night, borrowing books that are unfamiliar to him but appear old …show more content…
Clay cannot resist modernizing the old store. he attempts to create a digital version of the bookstore to somehow help him work more efficiently. Upon finishing the design for the bookstore, Clay notices that the record from the previous years of the bookstore’s customers was almost a message. Curiosity begins to overwhelm Clay, and he decides to look into one of the books. Clay finds that the contents of the book aren’t readable and not filled with words and sentences, but rather filled out with jumbled letters and numbers, which take the appearance of a set of