Eighth Day Books in The New York Times!!

On Friday, May 15 our Chesterton group met at Eighth Day Books--and we did have six new Chesterton fans come to our meeting--and Saturday morning I discovered that Eighth Day Books had been featured in The New York Times:

Eighth Day Books lives in an old three-story house on Douglas Avenue, just east of C&R Comics and Superior Rubber Stamp. It is not exactly a Christian bookstore — while sitting at the communal table, I can pull off the shelf works like Greil Marcus’s “The History of Rock ’n’ Roll in Ten Songs” or scoot my chair a couple of feet and grab, Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken.”

Still, the store’s name, Eighth Day, serves as a secret handshake among Christian book lovers, and its following reaches far beyond the heartland city it serves. Popular Christian writers like Lauren F. Winner and Rod Dreher are fans and erstwhile visitors. On one wall hangs a picture of Kallistos Ware, an Eastern Orthodox bishop and theologian, taken during his visit in 2002.

Warren Farha, 59, gray-haired and laconic, is the store’s founder, custodian, clerk and sole book buyer, a job that is more complex than it would be at a typical independent bookstore. The store’s shelves are divided into sections like Monastic Writings & Studies, Patristic Writings & Studies” and C. S. Lewis & Friends, and filled only with books Mr. Farha would read. So no cooking or travel.

There's a big sic at the end of that paragraph. Eighth Day Books does carry books on cooking and travel. Since the store caters to the Eastern Orthodox population of Wichita, Eighth Day has carried Orthodox Lenten cookbooks--and there are a few travel books on the second floor. 

Nevertheless, it's a great article--so good to see Eighth Day Books and Warren receive the attention that's due. Eighth Day Books is unique. 

Among the essential books in the store are C.S. Lewis's, and the other Inklings (Tolkien, Barfield, Williams) and other associated writers (Chesterton, MacDonald, Sayers). They were all on a special bookcase in the first store and are on a special bookcase in the current store. 

The Eighth Day Institute will hold its first annual Inklings Festival this summer. If you are interested in the Inklings and intrigued by Eighth Day Books it would be the perfect summer vacation! Watch for more information here.