El Lector Bookstore

El Lector Bookstore is Paraguay's leading bookstore chain and publishing house. Its story began on September 9, 1971, when Pablo León Burián, only 15 years old, set up a wooden stand —"Kiosko 653"— in Asunción's Plaza Uruguaya to sell magazines, cigarettes and books. That street stall grew into a venture that, decades later, became a cultural landmark of the country.

Today El Lector operates through around 12 branches across Asunción, Greater Asunción, Encarnación and Ciudad del Este, run by the founder's children. Beyond its role as a bookstore, it works as a publishing house with a wide catalog of Paraguayan authors and ties to the work of Augusto Roa Bastos, the country's greatest writer. Its flagship store is located on Av. San Martín near Austria, in the Manorá neighborhood of Asunción, a reference point for readers, students and researchers.