Rainy Day Books had a special guest earlier this week.
Keanu Reeves, the star of the “Matrix” and “John Wick” movies, stopped into the beloved Fairway book store on Tuesday to sign 200 copies of his new novel, “The Book of Elsewhere”, co-written with China Miéville.
Justin Dickinson, a bookseller at Rainy Day Books whose book club is doing a pre-planned adaptation of “John Wick” next month, said Reeves visited the store and met with staff members.
Dickinson described Reeves as “just a cool guy.”
“It was so nice,” Dickinson said. “He’s so kind. He was just very down to earth, very real, very calm. Just exactly how you would expect him to be, just a cool guy.”
Reeves was there as part of a promotional tour
- Dickinson said that Rainy Day Books knew about a month in advance of Reeves’ upcoming visit, but the store was told to keep the visit “super under wraps.”
- Reeves signed 200 copies of “The Book of Elsewhere” from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, Dickinson said.
- The longtime Hollywood star also performed at Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, with his band Dogstar on Wednesday night, Dickinson said.
The book is part of the BRZRKR universe
- “The Book of Elsewhere” is part of Reeves’ BRZRKR comic universe, Dickinson said.
- Reeves wrote the book along with Miéville, a British fiction writer with other books like “Perdido Street Station” and “The Last Days of New Paris” to his credit.
- The novel, released last month, is described as a “genre-bending epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die,” by Goodreads.
- “It would be perfect for any fantasy and sci-fi fans that are willing to suspend beliefs and kind of jump into a story at first without having a lot of understanding of the world,” Dickinson said.
Rainy Day is already sold out of signed copies
- Dickinson said that the Fairway bookstore sold out of all 200 signed copies by the end of the day Wednesday.
- “Yesterday was a very crazy day with people ordering, coming in and asking about it, calling and placing orders to be shipped, all sorts of stuff,” Dickinson said.
- Unsigned copies are still available for purchase at Rainy Day Books for $30, according to the book store’s website.
Keep reading: Rainy Day Books sells to Made in KC, Friends of Rainy Day Books
