Buying Books in Lima Peru

By Eleanor Griffis Author "The Lima Survival kit"

Looking for something to read?

The selection of books to buy in English in Lima is limited, and expensive. Certainly Crisol and Ibero are the bookstores to go to for novels in English by Peruvian authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa or for travel and coffee-table books on Peru. And Zeta Bookstores carry foreign magazines and offer a subscription service to US magazines such as Billboard, People and Popular Mechanics.

But you'll find the widest selection of reading material in English at "community" lending libraries, in the British Cultural Association and the North American Cultural Institute. And if you enjoy reading in French or German, you have some equally good sources at the Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institut. They all have music and film collections as well, plus Internet, and new journals and books every month. The annual library fees are nominal, and they are great places to take your kids after school or on a Saturday morning to browse, or to do research as they get older, let alone something new to furnish your bedside table with every week or two.

In the second hand book category, one or two Expatperu members organize book exchanges and announce them on the email list and forums, and a small book exchange is fed by travelers at the South American Explorers clubhouse.

The largest selection of second-hand books in Lima, all in English, is available twice a year at a book fair at the Anglican Good Shepherd Cathedral, usually in May/June and in September. It is a truly broad selection, quite literally something for everyone and lots of kids books too, all donated by people who are leaving Peru or spring-cleaning for their next choices.

British Cultural Library (Asociación Cultural Peruano Británico) Av. Arequipa 3495, San Isidro. Tel. 221-7550 ext.124 www.britanico.edu.pe Open Mon-Fri 8:30am-1pm, 2-7:30pm; Sat 9am-12m. 22,000 volumes, includes medical and science journals, pure and applied sciences, home and lifestyle magazines, children's section, multimedia section, sheet music, etc.
ICPNA (Instituto Cultural Peruano-Norteamericano) Av. Arequipa and corner Av. Angamos, Miraflores; and Av. Javier Prado 4637, La Molina. Tel. 706-7000 Open Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat 8am-6:30pm www.icpna.edu.pe/contenido.aspx?cod=3 24,000 volumes, local and US magazines, newspapers. Film lending library includes classic American movies, documentaries, children's films. http://www8.icpna.edu.pe/winnebago/index.asp?lib Even includes a library layout
Alianza Francesa Av. Arequipa 4595, Miraflores. Tel. http://www.alianzafrancesalima.edu.pe/ 15,000 volumes, broad selection of classics and contemporary work, DVDs, CDs.
Goethe Institut Jr. Nazca 722, Jesús María. Tel .433-3180 http://www.goethe.de/INS/pe/lim/esindex.htm Printed and audiovisual library. Check opening times before going.

A book by any other name……………

The medicine chest of the soul.
— Inscription over the door of the Library in the ancient Greek city of Thebes.

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. —William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. —Groucho Marx

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. —Paul Sweeney

TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they'll have with twenty-six. Open your child's imagination. Open a book. —Author Unknown.