It’s no surprise that the widely acclaimed Spanish author Miguel Cervantes would leave us this amazing literary quote! After all, he’s the man responsible for bringing Don Quixote to the world.

As Cervantes says, the written word can be timeless and priceless, and it certainly often comes straight from the author’s soul. Reading all that soulful material can be heartwarming, heartbreaking or even heartless, but there’s no doubt that reading—whatever the topic—is necessary for any language learner.

It can be difficult to get started with reading—many find it pretty challenging. But you don’t have to dive into it all at once. If you’re having trouble practicing your Spanish reading, try using bilingual books to ease into full-on Spanish reading.

The format of Spanish-English bilingual books takes the uncertainty out of reading in a foreign language. There’s no need to look up every word and you can instantly see if you understood a sentence correctly.

Read more: FluentU