The article explores the determinants of the decision to read books and visit libraries in a developing country, Colombia, based on data from the Encuesta de Consumo Cultural 2008 [Cultural Consumption Survey] (ECC2008). For this purpose, multilevel logistic regressions are estimated, results showing that a high level of education and a greater socioeconomic status have a positive and significant effect on the decision to read, whereas socioeconomic status does not prove significant vis-à-vis library visits. Moreover, the VPC (Variance Partition Coefficient), 5.33% (6.58%) of the residual variation in the propensity to read at least one book (visit a library), can be attributed to unobserved features of the neighbourhood