• the Binational Center(Centro Colombamericano)if you have a library membership(approximately $10.000 per year. You can check out about ten books for about a week. Fines are heavy if books are overdue.This is probably the best place in town.
• The School of Language library on campus
• The central library on campus
• The Antiquaria Bookstore on Niquitao Street( Behind the Comfama Building at San Ignacio Square. There you can buy used books at half the price. (You are not likely to get literature masterpieces though.)
• The Librería Nacional at San Diego shooping mall.
• Electronic books. Try these sites:

You may also get books from your close friends and English instructors.
Remember that you are going to need the book during the whole semester and that it should be available all the time. Books in libraries are often cheked out by other students and you might have to wait until your book is reurned, loosing precious time this way.
How to read the book: Remember the semester has only 15 weeks, so that if you divide 250 pages by 15 weeks, you should be reading at least 15 pages per week or 2 pages per day. Don´t use the dictionary very often. Try to skip those words that do not seem necessary and try guessing words from context and using your general inferencing skills. It is recomendable to read the book two times. When you read a page or two, write in a notebook a little summary of what you read and so on with each page thereafter. If at the end you put all the paragraphs together, you´ll have the written report almost ready. If you leave the written report for the last week, you will probably  have forgotten almost everything due intense academic work in all the subjects and time erosion of memory.

THE WRITTEN REPORT: One month before the  end of the semester you will hand in a 5 letter-size page report to your instructor(no double spacing) handwritten or computer printout. This report will help you organize your ideas for your oral report and will make you exercise writing, activate style, grammar and vocabulary skills and provide you with nemotecnic for the oral report. The written report is not graded but it is obligatory when you present your oral report because it will be a guaratee that you have really prepared your interview.

• One-hundred word list: As you read, you will jot down in your notebook, those words that you had to check up in your dictionary because they were difficult, they were interesting or unusual or they seemed difficult to pronounce or were curious about it or its translation into Spanish was difficult. This list of words with their corresponding definitions should be handed in to your instructor and should accompany your written report. The list can be handwritten or a printout.The former is preferred.
• List of figues of speech: As you read, put down intersting figures of speech with their labels. Go to the following address that contains a long list of figures to make sure you understand them.
• The following are other sites where you can know more about literary terms and figures of speech:

WRITTEN REPORT: One month before the semester is over, students are to hand in a written report containing the following items:

• a short biography of the writer if available( two paragraphs)
• a summary of the plot( what happened, when, where, why, etc.)
• a personal evaluation of the book(Did you like it? why or why not?)
• a relationshiop between the book and the social, political and economic context.

THE ORAL REPORT: One month before the semeter is over, you should schedule an interview with your instructor. This interview should last about 30-40 minutes. In it, you should be able to tell your instructor about the author of the book, the plot, the main and secondary characters description, the import of the book and your own conclusions about the book and your reading experience.
READING METHOD: People use various strategies when reading a book. In general, do not try to look up every word in the dictionary. This may slow your reading speed. Try to use the local and global context of the word to guess the meaning of the word.
Suggested books for reading:

The Red Pony...........................John Steinbeck
The Pearl..............................John Steinbeck
Huckleberry Finn.......................Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer.............................Mark Twain
The Dharma Bums........................Jack Kerouac
On the Road............................Jack Kerouac
For Whom the Bell Tolls................Ernest Hemingway
Death in the Afternoon.................Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea................Ernest Hemingway