In my view, no trip to Colombia — or anywhere really —is complete without a stop at either a public library or a bookstore. I’m basically if Rick Steves was also a part-time librarian.

Nestled in the heart of Barranquilla’s Centro Histórico lies Dos Mangos, an indie bookstore founded in 2022 that also sells coffee and select vinyl records.

Centro Histórico, Spanish for Historic District, is a very special area of Barranquilla that actually reminds me a lot of downtown Savannah; it too has sprawling trees, stately buildings, and drivers who can’t parallel park to save their lives.

While we rode inside the taxi cab, my aunt poked fun at all the old people she saw walking around Centro Histórico.

“Ha, look at that old coot, he’s definitely historic,” she laughed while pointing at a skinny elderly man with snow white hair and a bushy beard like Santa Claus. To defend the old coot, my younger cousin pointed out that my aunt just turned the big 5-0 last Sunday, which isn’t too far off from whatever age that guy was.

Once the storefront was in view, the taxi driver stopped the car in the middle of a street undergoing some heavy roadwork, and we hopped off to the bookstore. Stepping inside Dos Mangos, I immediately sensed that it was a fairly new location: the place was small, but well-lit and neatly organized, not to mention perfumed with the scent of espresso. To the left of the entrance, there was a comfy couch in front of the store’s window where my mom, my aunt, and my two cousins sat while I geeked out over all the cool books on the shelves, perfectly alphabetized by surname.

The owner Vicky (short for Victoria) was quick to notice me and my family because we seemed to be the only customers in the bookstore that afternoon. Vicky explained that although Dos Mangos opened in 2022, the store recently moved to its current location just a few months ago. At first Vicky and her team were worried about customers not being able to find them at their new place, but then she realized that, with the new spot in a central location, she was actually gaining new customers with the move. Case in point: yours truly.

“You all seem to have brought me good luck,” Vicky said to us with a smile as she showed me around the store’s Jane Austen collection. She was older, with dyed brown hair cropped short, and wore khaki capris and a sleeveless tank top, not unlike most people in this humid February heat over here.

Thanks to Vicky I took home four books, two of which are written by contemporary Colombian authors. The other two are Spanish translations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and “Winter Hours”, a prose and poetry collection of Mary Oliver. My recent obsession with Frankenstein is partly inspired by Guillermo del Toro’s film currently streaming on Netflix (go watch it!) and partly inspired by the moral quandaries currently being posed to the world by artificial intelligence as well as the corporations and CEOs that push A.I. onto the wider public without consent.

Anyways, Frankenstein is a perfect beach read. Much like how Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is a great film to watch with your romantic partner.

No, seriously, go watch it. Then you can complain about it next week via a letter to the editor, as I’m sure Emily Brontë herself would do.

Andrea Gutierrez is the managing editor of the Bryan County News. If you strongly disliked “Wuthering Heights” (2026), please email agutierrez@bryancountynews.com to air your grievances. Chances are she will agree with you.