Time to fess up. Reading has never been your forte.

You coasted through English classes thanks to some guy named Cliff. And lately you’ve been resorting to second-rate movie adaptations to get your literary fix.

Redeem yourself by popping into City Bookshop, a snuggly sliver of a storefront in Lakeview with a prudent selection of gently used and rare books.

Proprietors John and Celina Flowers graciously weeded out the cultural rubbish you don’t need (i.e., Ann Coulter, Danielle Steel) and handpicked a more robust collection of fiction and nonfiction titles.

Sprinkled throughout the stacks are bits and pieces of sci-fi (William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition), history (James W. Loewen’s Lies Across America), mystery (Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency ), and children’s lit (Franklin W. Dixon’s The Hardy Boys series). And most of the 7,000 titles are less than $7.

Proving something you’ve always suspected.

You can’t judge a bookshop by its teeny facade.

City Bookshop, 3125 North Broadway Street, between Briar Place and Barry Avenue (773-880-8003).