Arty Bees Books

Family-run Arty Bees Books was born in 1988 and has books covering most subjects. We are particularly proud of our New Zealand History and Literature sections. Only a small percentage of our stock is online so please contact the store directly regarding other titles. Currently we have less than 2,000 titles listed here but over 80,000 titles in store. Owner, Pippa Burch, took over the business from her father, who had a soft spot for second hand books. In fact, the name Arty Bees comes from her father's initials R.T.B. (his name is Robert Burch). The store has seen many different locations over the years, but is now well and truly settled into its Manners Street home. The shop boasts over 80,000 books on over one kilometre of shelving. Arty Bees is well-known in Wellington for its impressive collection of science fiction novels. In fact, they probably have the largest collection of titles in the country. The 7 staff have amassed over 50 years of service to Arty Bees. All have different fields of expertise and can often answer the trickiest questions. “When I was twelve I enjoyed a book with a green cover. Do you have it?”