In order to provide an evaluation of the suitability of reading texts from the perspective of students in university-based intensive English programme, this study examined 53 international ESL intermediate learners’ perceptions of reading texts for a period of 14 weeks reading proficiency lessons. Features evaluated include content, readability, exploitability, and authenticity of the reading texts. The participants responded to a textbook evaluation questionnaire to express their perceptions with reference to the features of the reading texts. Results indicated the extent of appropriateness of the reading texts incorporated in the programme’s reading textbook used by intermediate learners of English. Further consideration must be given to text selection by including the aspect of authentic text presentation.