If i may..? The equally symetrical layout is hard to read, you should rather use an one third - two thirds layout, or about. Then i'd try something like #FFF1CA for the left hand column, so it looks like the text (i know they right now are the exact same color but one being surrounded by black making it look lighter). Also, maybe increasing the padding up of the right col up to a 100px would prevent eyes from being lost between both columns when jumping lines. Overall contrast is way too high. Hope that helps.