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Blue Bicycle Book Shop, King St., Charleston, S.C.

The folks at Blue Bicycle Book Store on King St. like to leave messages in their window and the eye- catching blue bicycle with a stack of books parked on the sidewalk. This week's message is "Browse".

I used to be such a book worm. I went to sleep with a book on my pillow and woke up to continue where I left off. Sometimes I dreamed onwards from where I nodded off and woke up the next morning startled to find the story took a different direction.

My mother was a reader and read endlessly to us. She'd try to get a few quiet moments to herself in what seemed like the middle of the night but we'd hear the clicking of her typewriter in the snug kitchen and one after another we'd sneak out of bed, draped in shawls and blankets to huddle by the coal stove and insist on another chapter. With eight kids she couldn't even get that time to herself. Heheh. One more chapter, one more chapter. We'd all sniffle quietly at the sad parts. She read all the classics to us and enjoyed reading in Scottish dialect when called for.

I lost my reading habit when I got a laptop. Now I don't know how to pace myself with a book. If I start to read I can't stop. I read straight through until I am finished and find myself wide awake at 3 a.m. One more chapter, one more chapter.