Books for everyone
Scorpio Books turns 50 this year. For decades, it’s been somewhere you wander into and lose track of time – scanning the staff picks, pulling a title you didn’t know you needed, or simply hanging out in a place that felt like an extension of home.
Founded by David Cameron, Scorpio Books has grown from a modest store on Fendalton Road in the 1970s to three stores offering a diverse collection of titles. Many will recall its next iteration on Hereford Street, where the store stood for almost 25 years, flourishing, before its move to the BNZ Centre following the earthquakes, one of the first businesses to return to the changing city.
They’ve outpaced the digital revolution, where doomsday headlines declared that books would be history. In a time when retail continues to struggle, Scorpio is bucking that trend with continued growth.
“Our customers have always been incredibly loyal,” David says. “That’s what’s sustained us through everything.”
He also credits much of Scorpio’s success to his partner Jo, who left early childhood teaching to join the business. “She’s been invaluable,” David says.
A key point of difference was Scorpio’s willingness to source obscure, controversial, and hard-to-find titles from overseas long before that became commonplace. “We ordered a lot of books other places didn’t have or wouldn’t stock,” David says. “I never agreed with censorship. I believed customers should be able to access the books they wanted to read.”
That philosophy occasionally attracted official attention. Before homosexual law reform in the 1980s, Scorpio proudly stocked books by LGBTQIA+ authors and on queer issues. The store was once investigated by customs for carrying what authorities described as “questionable material”.
For David, it’s the memories that matter most. “You realise over time that the shop becomes part of people’s lives,” he says. “People meet here, they bring their children here, they come back year after year. That’s incredibly special.”
To mark the milestone, Scorpio Books will host a special 50th anniversary celebration over King’s Birthday Weekend, featuring selected book deals, giveaways, curated prize packs, and a bespoke Scorpio coffee blend roasted especially for the store by C4 Coffee Co.