 In the studio, I'm Lynn Weaver. The program is brought to you by Davis Media Access, and it broadcasts on David Community Television. That's Comcast Channel 15 and AT&T U-Verse, menu 99. We're also online at dctv.davismedia.org, so you can go and log on and check us out there. Joining me today is Susan Vince, who, with her husband, runs a very successful nonprofit here in downtown Davis. It's the Logus Use Book bookstore, and the wonderful reasons for having her here is that the bookstore is so much more than a bookstore. First of all, it has something unique about it, namely, it gives Susan and Peter Lint give all their proceeds to charity, as we will discover a bit later in the interview, but it's also a very quaint, quiet place where you can browse the most unique books that I've seen in a long time. But especially it's also a cultural center for our community here in Davis. Susan and Peter organized several events, as we will see. So Susan, welcome to the show, and thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Lynn. It's a pleasure to be here, and I know we're going to have a fun talk today. I know we will. So I understand, what I'm going to ask you is, I understand 2013 has been a banner year for Logus books. Can you tell me why? Well, we were very pleased this year. We did start, actually this is our fourth birthday coming up in February 2020. Congratulations. Thank you. Four years. I'm so proud that we've managed to hang in there. And my husband had begun this business quite a while ago in 2000, but it was an online business for the first 10 years. And in 2010 he thought he'd like to begin a bricks and mortar store, so we did that. And the first year in business, we were hoping we would not be in the red. And to our surprise, we were able to give $10,000 after we paid our expenses to both Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children. The next year we were able to give $22,000. The following year, which would have been last year, would have been $35,000. And this year we managed to give $40,000. So we were very pleased that every year... That's fantastic. Yeah, it's very, very nice. It's a very nice success story for the store. And I think it's really also a tribute to the many lovely customers we have and our wonderful volunteers who help make it all possible. So we're very pleased and very happy for our charities as well. What gave you the idea to start a brick store, should you speak? Yes, the bricks and mortar store was the idea of my husband, Peter. And the whole idea of beginning an online bookstore that gave its money to charity began, as I said, in 2000 when he'd retired from the university. He had been a professor of mathematics and computer science for years. And he, I thought, thought rather wisely that he just didn't want to come and stay home or play tennis or whatever. He thought he'd really like to continue doing something. And he loves books, he loves to read, and he started this business of logos books online. And 10 years later in 2010, when I was already retired from Solano College, where I had taught for years, we both decided that it might be the moment to begin a bricks and mortar store in town. At that time, we had quite a few bookstores. We had boarders books in town. Yes, which closed. Yes, it did, unfortunately. Avid Reader, who is thankfully still in business and doing very, very well. And a lovely bookstore, Sweetbriar Books, that was located near the co-op and did very well for many years. And slowly, since we began in 2010, both boarders and Sweetbriar are no longer with us. So now we're in a very interesting position in that we're basically the only second-hand bookstore in Davis, with the exception of a small book nook that I want to mention that the SPCA has as well. Yes. Which is lovely. Which is lovely. It is nice. Yes. What intrigued me, as I said at the beginning, is, first of all, the type of books that you have, which are very interesting, but also all the cultural events that you promote and sponsor and participate in. But let's start with the books. Right. How do you stock your store and who chooses them and who gives them? It is a good question. Right. Where are they coming from? These books. Some of them are fantastic. And you have foreign language books, too. Yes, we do. Which are very rare in Davis. Yes, it's hard to find those. Yes. And I think that we plead, Peter and I both plead guilty on the foreign language because he is a European and his native language is German. And I taught French for many years at Solano College and also speak some Spanish. So we naturally decided that we were going to have those because we ourselves love them and we knew that there would be people who would like to have them as well. Yes. And we're looking for them. We're looking for them. Yes. So the way we get the books, there are really two ways. One, we have to thank the many people that donate to us and that is a wonderful source of books. We do accept all donations and people can bring them in anytime between 10 and 8 when we're open, Tuesdays through Sundays, basically. By the way, you are on 2nd Street. Yes, we are. Yes. 513 2nd Street in Davis. Yes. So we're very central to downtown and I always tell people to bring them in early in the morning when they can park close by because books are very heavy to carry. Yes. But the other way and the way Peter and I spend our weekends is to go to the many, many book sales that are given around the Bay Area and in Northern California because if we depended only on the donations we would have a very lopsided collection. We want to make sure that we have books in math, in ancient history, in humor, in cooking, in children's books, in religion, philosophy, all the different areas that people like to read. 39 dreams. Right. And we don't want to be just a narrow bookstore that would have only contemporary fiction and personal help or health books. So for that reason we do go out and try to supplement by the collection, by purchasing the books that we feel we need to have. And in those two ways, donations and our own shopping trips we're able to have I think a very nice and somewhat eclectic collection. It's a very eclectic collection but it must be a lot of work. Do you have volunteers who help you sort and discard some of the books that come in? That's a good question. At this point we basically are using the volunteers to man the store, a woman the store, when we're gone. And so for example, on weekday mornings and afternoons and on the weekends we have volunteers in the store who are selling the books for us. At this point we haven't found a very good way, I'm afraid, for us to sort through because Peter and I know what's in the store and what we need and what we don't need and we also know how to price the books. It's difficult to have someone else at that point do that. Yes. But the volunteers are amazingly helpful to us because they permit us to have the time to do that. Yes. So that is really why we're so pleased to have them. We also have an assistant manager who oversees the volunteers on the weekend so that we can get away and not be concerned about that when we're gone. So without the volunteers I think we wouldn't be as successful as we have been. We're very grateful to them. Yes. And of course the pricing of the books must be very interesting. Do you have any guidelines? So you just guess a little bit of guesswork. A little bit of guesswork. It's interesting because I think the ten years that Peter spent online gave him a very good sense of the value of books. Yes. And we try to keep the books. For example I manage the children's room. I try to keep the books fairly inexpensive because I really want to encourage the children to read. Yes. And I think that they should be something they can come in and not feel they're spending a lot of money and to read quite a bit. And we do, I think that's the principle that's throughout the story. We feel that we want people to come in and find something that is very affordable and that they can basically read it and if they want they can donate it back to us and that works out well as well. So I think there are some books that are a little bit more expensive. These are the books that are usually in an area, for example I want to say mathematics or physics or an area that's a very different area of history or perhaps art books for example that have lovely pictures. These might be some of our more expensive items but in general we have very, very few books in the store that I'd say are over $15. Most of them I would say most of the contemporary fiction and literature run between $4 and $8. So I think that's very doable for most people. It is and of course $40,000 in one year. It's fantastic. You mentioned two charities, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders. May I ask why these two charities? Absolutely. These are the two charities my husband started with when he began the online business and I have to say he does nothing without thinking it through. He's a true mathematician. I think he felt that the community we live in is very fortunate. Most of us are fairly affluent and have quite a bit and I think he felt that the charities he chose he wanted them to be outside this community so that the money that we were giving could be going to support people in parts of the world who had far less and for this reason these are the charities we've chosen. That being said I know Save the Children does quite a bit in the United States. They do. They do and they are a very well-known charity and so this is a very nice formula that you have here. Right and just to interject as well another reason that we chose these is that he also researched to find the charities that gave the bulk of their money to the actual works they were supporting rather than the structure and the overhead. That was the other reason that I wanted to mention. So we feel very comfortable with both those charities and we feel that they're well-known, they're reputable and we can feel comfortable about giving the money to them. I know that doctors without borders are doing a fantastic job and they also receive the Nobel Prize and the Peace Nobel Prize so they are credible of course to say the least. But as I mentioned at the beginning there's a couple of things before I go on to the cultural salon that you have with all these events. I was intrigued by the name Logus. Of course now I understand it better because your husband is a mathematician. And Logus I believe in Aristotle used to call it for him it meant logic and order. And the word also is Logus. Ethos and Logus and I think he felt that. Ethos and Logus and Pathos. The three words yes. So that's a very nice sounding word. Yes and it's interesting because I think in the beginning it was a little bit of a confusion because I think some people thought it might be a religious bookstore which were not and also another little confusion sometimes comes because there's a very large and well-known Logus bookstore in Santa Cruz and we're not affiliated with them either. It's just a little bit of a coincidence but yes you're right I think there is a mathematical connection there Lynn. And also I can understand the Christian because I was looking it up when I was preparing the interview and one of the other meanings is also God. Yes. Logus is God. Yes. So but I think most people just go in and find out. And find out what it is. Yes. But this is just you know I was trained as a linguist so that's one of my pet. Yes. So that was your interest. Yes. But let's talk about I've noticed that you the bookstore is often featured in the Davis Enterprise. You've got at least seven or eight articles and this is because of all the events that you put together and for example you have La Table Française which is advanced French conversation I think once a month. Yes we do. Once a month then you have the Sacramento poets and reading their works and what else do you have? Well this is interesting and I loved the fact that you called it a salon. How lovely of you to say that. That's very nice. But I think that we... There are some comfortable chairs. Yes there are. We can sit down and get into it. But I think that we felt that we did want the bookstore not only to be a moneymaker for charity but we felt that with the changing platform for reading we all know that the Kindle and the electronic book is not going to go away. So we didn't want to ignore the fact that bookstores are really a place for people to come together to browse, to look for something they've never even thought of reading before. But also to come together and chat about the books they read and also an exchange of ideas and this idea of a salon a place where you exchange ideas and enjoy exploring different things. And you meet friends too. Exactly. And by the way you also have a Spanish. We do. We have a Spanish conversation. Circulo Espanol and we have La Table Française. I would love to have a German group. I haven't a moderator for that yet. But it's nice because these groups are people that have studied French, have studied Spanish, have a certain competency in it and would just like to have the opportunity to practice it. And that's what the emphasis is on. So the French group meets the second Wednesday of the month. The Spanish group the third Monday of the month in the evening. And it's very just very informal. We usually have a subject that we post on our web page. Logos use books. Oh, excuse me. It's logosbooks.org. Wordpress.com. Yes, it's logosbooks.org. Wordpress.com. Yes, and we'll have it. Yeah, and we'll put it and people will come and find the topic. And there's usually an article to read or something that we're going to discuss. So people know beforehand. And it's just very nice. People can come and just listen or they can participate as much as they like. And that works very well for them, I think. Do you have similar events or activities for children? For musicians? Well, we tried once to have a children's reading group. But that doesn't work as well, I think, because the Davis Library does such a splendid job. It's true. With all of theirs. It's true. So I think we decided that probably that wouldn't work. There's been much trying of things. And we kind of, we had a philosophers group for a while that came and discussed philosophy. And that worked for a little bit. And then the people that did that graduated and went on. They were mostly students at UC Davis. Well, there's no reason that it shouldn't be fluid. Right. It comes and goes. There's more variety. Right. But perhaps something for children with foreign language? We could perhaps in the future. I think that the Davis Arts Center does different things for students in terms of our children for foreign language. Yes. We do have, as you mentioned, a Quentin Duval poetry series. This is a poetry series that was in honor of a colleague of mine who passed away about three years ago. And he was a very well-known poet. He taught as a colleague of mine at Solano College. And he was a really vibrant person in the Sacramento poetry scene. So we have usually every other month in the academic year a poetry reading. Usually two poets are featured. And tonight, in fact, we're going to have one, though I know by the time your program airs, this will be history. Yes. But again, on our blog, as I mentioned, logosbooks.wordpress.com, people can always find what the latest poetry reading is and when it will be. And so that's just been a very big pleasure and a big discovery for me because I was never a very much of a poetry fan. And I feel like I've learned enormously by being allowed to sit in on those and host them. That sounds wonderful. The other thing, you mentioned that you were an academic and you were teaching and so on. Can you tell me a little more about your experience with the bookstores, none, except for the online? Right. My husband's was basically he learned it as he did it over the 10 years from 2000 to 2010. And I watched him and I would help him at book sales. We went to, he would tell me what he was looking for and I would help him purchase the books. But really I had no retail experience whatsoever. For both of us, this is quite an adventure because we were both in, he in academia and I in the community college as well. And we were basically he a researcher and a professor and I a community college instructor. So that was really our background. Yes. And it is very interesting. I've learned quite a bit and I have a great deal of respect for the Davis merchants. I think they do a wonderful job. They try to be very open and inviting and inclusive of all of the people that come to the downtown. I feel that they do a splendid job and I'm very honored to be a member of the downtown Davis group. I think it's great. Are you in touch with the literary community in Davis like the authors? There are a number of authors. They're well known. Do they donate to some of them? I suppose yes. I think we have had Max Bird. We've had different people donate books to us. I know that the Avid Reader does such a splendid job with its readers series. They do. We've decided in a sense not to do that because I think that a lot of times what the Avid Reader does so well is they feature the books afterwards that they're readers. And this is not such an easy thing for us because we're trying basically to offer books at a very inexpensive price and used. And the readers are not reading used books. They're reading their brand new books and they would like to sell their brand new books. So I think that that's a much better fit for Avid Reader because they do such a good job. Yes. And they have a very nice niche. They do. And you can both have different... Yes. And we try to satisfy different demands and wishes of our community. We're just about out of time. Okay. But quickly, what is your dream for the future within the book, this enterprise that you've started, the store profit? How would you like to expand or would you like to have a chain? Would you like to have a chain? Oh, I think that sounds like probably more than we would be able to handle. But it's a good question. And I think as my husband and I are very interested in having the store continue for as long as we can, have it continue. And if we can find people that are interested in helping us, have it continue. We would be very welcome to work with them so that it can in the future. And that's our big dream, I think, is to have it continue being there for everybody as long as it can. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure, Lynn. It's been a pleasure for me. And you're really an example for the community. Thank you. It's great. So I'm afraid we'll have to go. Okay. So Susan Lips, the Logos Book Store, a used bookstore owner with her husband, Peter, thank you so much for coming. Their website again is LogosBooks.org. WordPress.com. And thank you so much, all of you, for watching. If you'd like to see this program again, you can log on to our website, dctv.davismedia.org, and check us out. Check some of our other programs. You've been watching in the studio. I'm Lynn Weaver from all of us here at Davismedia.access. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time.