The cultural transformations of Latin America and the Caribbean during the first part of the 20th century lay the ground for the emergence of a new type of reader: the aficionado pobre. Maintaining that José Lezama Lima —one of the most erudite writers in any literature— was an amateur reader might cause some surprise. However, the most salient trait of his intellectual formation seems to justify this assertion. As is the case with the aficionado pobre described by Beatriz Sarlo in her studies on Argentinian culture, Lezama formed himself as a reader thanks to the low-priced books made available in Cuba by the success of Argentinean and Mexican publishing houses in the 1920’s. If not for these books, almost all of them translations, how could Lezama build, in Havana and with a small salary, a library of more than 10,000 volumes? How could he accumulate such vast cultural capital? The purpose of this paper is to show the correlation between Lezama’s intellectual project and the major traits of his personal library. I argue that the significance of excess in his literary work is anticipated by the also excessive catalog of publications and translations of publishing houses such as Tor, Espasa-Calpe, Losada and Ercilla.