From a long line of booksellers, Jo McColl started working at Unity bookstore in 1978 and has never left. She owns Unity Books Auckland and is co-owner of its Wellington store. She insists predictions that books are soon to be obsolete are wrong.
Jo McColl grew up surrounded by books and says people read a lot because there was no television. Picture / Chris Loufte
Jo McColl grew up surrounded by books and says people read a lot because there was no television. Picture / Chris Loufte
1. Describe your childhood:
I grew up in Seatoun, Wellington, up in the hills. It was a great place to grow up, lots of freedom, trolleying down the hills, fishing and building forts and the bush. I think growing up there's given me a love of the sea, being up there on the peninsula, surrounded by the wild sea. My dad, Ray Harris, was very into jazz and he had a jazz programme on the radio and TV and wrote for the Listener. He was kind of "the jazz man". It was a good childhood, I have lots of good memories.

 2. Did you grow up in a house full of books?
Yeah. My parents were big readers and that was in the days when you belonged to a book club and they just sent you books every month. I grew up with walls of books by anybody who was anybody ... and people read them in those days because there was no TV. I'm from a long line of booksellers, it's in my blood. My mother worked in the book trade and my great-grandfather was G.H. Bennett who opened the Bennetts bookstores.
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