The festivities are starting early for Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan., which marks its 35th anniversary on November 4. The store is hosting a four-night "Celebration of the Book" series beginning with Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean on September 19, followed by Terry McMillan (September 21), Jonathan Franzen (September 22) and Diana Gabaldon (September 23). 
"We wanted to engage as many people as possible from different age groups and different parts of the community not only to celebrate our anniversary but to celebrate books and the importance of reading," said Vivien Jennings, the founder and president of Rainy Day Books. Both new and repeat guests will be stopping by this fall, among them children's scribe Rick Riordan and memoirists Ingrid Betancourt and Condoleezza Rice. Ina Garten is making her fifth appearance at the store to promote her new cookbook, Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That?
Customers who can't attend the events are invited to participate by purchasing an autographed book and donating it to an area library or charity auction. "We're spreading the celebration out that way, too," Jennings said.
Rainy Day Books opened in a 450-sq.-ft. former police station in the Fairway Shops plaza in 1975, selling recycled paperbacks. Jennings later added new paperbacks to the store's inventory and eventually expanded to a full line of new books. Over the years the store has occupied three different locations in the shopping center and is now the anchoring retailer, with 2,500 square feet of selling space and a drive-in lower level, which contains offices, a receiving and shipping area and storage.
"The different steps we've taken to modify the store have been due to keeping a close ear to the ground of what makes our customers happy and what keeps them reading and excited about books," said Jennings. Several years ago used books were phased out after customers indicated they were no longer interested in trading in their paperbacks. The used books section was replaced, at shoppers' urging, with a substantial display devoted to reading group selections. 
Another step in Rainy Day's evolution was making the store a premier destination for touring authors. When Jennings first asked publishers to consider the Midwestern locale, "their eyes would glaze over," she recalled. "They didn't think people read in the big wheat field." That changed in the mid-1990s after she and her partner, Roger Doeren, submitted a proposal to host a fête for Anne Rice and Servant of the Bones at an antebellum mansion. "Random House decided to give us a chance, and that was the beginning of our role in the event business," Jennings said. "We owe heartfelt thanks to the publishers for their continued support and to all the authors who have spread the word over the years." Jennings and Doeren attend every event the store hosts. "Events have been very much key in the fact that we're still here. That and our strong connection to the community, but it's all integrated."
Earlier this year Jennings was the keynote speaker at a breakfast sponsored by Reach Out and Read Kansas City, an organization that provides books to kids at well-child visits. While preparing for the talk, said Jennings, "I realized I never had a book of my own until I was probably in junior high school." She read books at school or ones that her mother borrowed from the library. "I told the audience that when we're giving books to these kids, we don't know what that child is going to do or become if we introduce them to the power of reading."
Encouraging literacy "is a lifelong passion of mine because I know that I would not be what I am today without books," said Jennings. She serves on the advisory councils of Reach Out and Read Kansas City and St. Luke's Breast Cancer Center, for which she helped build a lending library for patients seeking support and information about the disease. Rainy Day is also a partner in the Hooked on Books Project, which provides books to at-risk children.
Some of Jennings's favorite handsells have been Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, Reynolds Price's Roxanna Slade and, more recently, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. "Different books are needed at different times," remarked Jennings. "I tell people this is absolutely the best time to be a reader. When I started in the business, there was genre fiction and classics and almost nothing in between. A few literary writers, but that was it. And look at what there is now. There's history, biography, fiction, and it's all great."
Rainy Day is working on a video narrated by Jennings with highlights from the store's history. The retrospective, which will be shown at events this fall, showcases such things as memorable author moments, the development of the store space and even how Jennings' hair has turned gray. It also features store staffers, some of whom have been with Rainy Day for two decades. "It's fun to remember the things we've done over the years," said Jennings. One memento she came across from the early days, illustrating just how far the store has come, was an adding machine tape with a note written on it by a business associate: "$14. Yuck. A pretty slow day."
"It has been a long journey and so interesting to see how our business has changed over the past 35 years and how we've been able to adapt," said Jennings. Adapt to changes and challenges like increased operating expenses (the store's original rent was $200 a month), integrating and maintaining technological necessities, competition from chain bookstores and Amazon.com, transitioning to Internet sales--RainyDayBooks.com launched in 1994--and vying for people's time and money in a digital age. Said Jennings, "Yes, it's challenging, but it's a wonderful business. I really can't imagine doing anything else."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt