my childhood was complete wreck (due to parents who were still children emotionally). I loved to read. I would read Dick and Jane and all those great books about life. I used to believe that if we would just move to a street named after a tree our lives would be perfect, just like in the books I read. My all time favorite was Maple Street.

coop

My parents had a lot of self-help, how-to, historical, and factual books when I was a kid. I used to think that authors didn't write stories for adults, and that when I grew up, I'd have to read boring stuff about gardening and wars.

Jane

Up to being 18, if I was reading a particularly scary book, when I put it down I couldn't leave it open at the page I was on, I had to shut it and use a bookmark. This was in case anything got out of it and came to get me.
Also, I couldn't leave it face up, with the picture on the front looking at me.

Katie

When I was little, we lived near a catholic church. There was a sign on the sidewalk that said pedestrian crossing, so i used to think that a pedestrian was was what you called a person who went to church.

jen

I used to read 'Shopfitters' as 'Shoplifters'....wondered why they had a warehouse to advertise the fact thats what they did! Never dare ask my parents about it in case only I could see it!!

Anon

I use to believe that I had written the version of the Three Little Pigs were the wolf was a good guy. I made a big stink about it when I saw the book in the library. I told my parents that they had stolen the idea from me.

Krissy

I thought "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was a somewhat casual manual for astronauts.

Katya

When in 1940 my sister was 12 she found the word "brothel" in a book and asked her father what it meant. he replied "a soup kitchen for poor people"
Her husband disillusioned her at the age of 20.

Alan

I used to believe that when an author's name on a book cover was in bigger letters than the title of the book itself, it was meant for adults. If the title was bigger than the author, it was a children's book. I got this belief by comparing my parents' books to my own.

Andrew

As a pre-teen, when I read the back of the Aqua Net and it said, "caution: contents under pressure", I thought "contents" was a verb. I wondered for years how the can would content if it was put under pressure!

Emily

I used to read Highlights magizine and there would be drawing contests. There was a section for the winners and a section for the honorable mentions. For the longest time I thought this said horrible mention and felt embarassed for the kids with the horrible drawings.

Anon

Before i had learned how to read and write, I thought that the grown-ups weren't actually writing (i mean handwriting), they were just fooling around and scribbling weird stuff on paper. Therefore, I was convinced that I could "write" as well, so ever time I got my hands on a pen and a piece of paper(including newspapers, books etc.) I just scribbled it to death. That drove my grandparents crazy, especially since I ruined a few rare and expensive books.

Marius

When I was little I used to believe that cursive was read in a British accent and print was read in an American accent. I have no idea where this one came from.

Anon

When I was young I had a computer game that taught you reading skills. On of the words you could click on was "sax" which I confused with "sex". I was very curious to learn was sex was but didn't want my parents to see me click on it cause I thought it was bad. I was very dissapointed and confused to see a picture of a saxophone!

Katie

As a child I read on a sign once "apply within" and at the time I thought it had something to do with apples!

Lesley

My dad made be believe that picture adverts for rufuse skips in the local paper were actually lorries that transported erect tents (upside down).

Bruce

When I was little, my mom wanted to buy me a subscription to a magazine called "Children's Digest," but I absolutely refused to get it because I thought the magazine was all about digestion, and who wants to read about that?

Molly

I grew up not far from the local train tracks. My friends and I would lay on the slope leading up to the tracks and would count the cars as they went by. I remember going home one day and asking my Grandmother where Capa City was. It was written on all of the box cars. We got out the altas and searched, but found nothing.
Not long after that, we got stuck in the car at the RR crossing. When the box cars starting rolling by, I showed her where it said they were all from Capa City.
She began to laugh so hard, she had to turn around to go home and change her pants.
What I was reading as Capa City, was actually "capacity"...as in maximum volume.....Ooooooohhhh!
Hey, I was 7!

Carol

I used to think that "Jabberwocky" was a character from Star Wars.

Katya

Once, I found a very fascinating book in my mother's book case. I read the summery on the back, and learned the word, "Courtesan", as well as many others(all of which got me into some sticky situations). I reasoned that from the sound of the words and the summary that a courtesan was a female lawyer.
Bursting to show off my new word, I addressed my aunt, who was a lawyer. I...asked her what she did as a courtesan. What happened afterwards was Not Fun.

Virginia W.