When I was little, I had a foreign nanny that would always tell me something that sounded like "com kweet". I never learned what it meant, but I somehow came up with the idea that you had to say it after every sentence when you read aloud.

So, when I'd read a book for my mom and grandma, it sounded something like this: "The dog climbed up the hill, com kweet. It made him very tired, com kweet..."

AUDREY

When I was about 6 years old, me and my younger brother found the "Lord of the rings" book in my parents bedroom,it was the biggest book we had ever seen, except for the bible, so we thought it was the opposite,the Devil's book, so we hid it under the book shelf, unluckily, it was a library book...

Lillian

I used to believe that if you folded a letter with the recipient receiving the blank side upon opening, then he or she would think there was nothing on either side of the paper.

SPC

I began reading the Harry Potter series when I was 10 and, according to the books, you get your letter to Hogwarts on your 11th birthday. I was completely convinced these books were real and cried for hours on my 11th birthday when no letter of acceptence to this magical school came.

Anon

Used to go around my school classes and brag to people that I read "War and Peace" (being of course famous or infamous for its horrendous length). It was a lie... and I know I was just a kid, but I guess I didn't realize it was such a LAME thing to brag about.

ME: "I read War and Peace!"
THEM: "Nice, want to play Legos?"
ME: "I READ all of it! War and Peace!"
THEM: "Uh, okay. Cards?"
ME: "Tolstoy is cool, WAR!"
THEM: "Okay, you nerd."
ME: "And PEACE!"
THEM: *goes away*
ME: "I think I shall read it again!"

You may have, by now, gauged my level of popularity back then.

Ashton Sanderson

When I was little I never understood why adults liked to read. I thought that all the read were information books or dictionary/thesaurus... I never knew they actually had fiction books! Not until I was about 10!

Bekkie O.

Whenever we travelled to the States, I thought that "Exxon" (like on the gas station signs) was how Americans spelled "Esso," which made me believe that Americans spoke a different language than Canadians.

Tammy

I always thought that the tv commercial phrase "Reading is fundamental" was instead "Reading is fun to mental". I guess I was. D'oh!

Chicago Joe

when i was wee i used to think union was pronounced like onion, which led to some confusion when seeing the covers of various news magazines during the various strikes and worker problems of the 70's and early 80's

adrian

When I was 5, I believed that the older you are the bigger the books you read. I have clear memories of sitting in library class planning that in the future when I was in grade 6 (about 11 years old) I would borrow the two red 10 cm thick books that sat on the shelf behind the library teacher. As I grew older I realised that I had in fact planned to borrow two volumes of the dictionary !!!

C S Wagon

When I reached the third grade, my family moved to a different state and, threfore, I had to attend a different school. It was larger than my old school, so it was already intimidating. The first day, as I was walking down the hall, I saw a sign that said "Walk on the right side of the hall." I thought it meant walk on the 'correct' side of the hall. I was so scared, because nobody had told me what the correct side was.

pastrami

When I was in first grade (1995) I had read the book "Shiloh" (Bad idea). After reading it, I was terrified Judd Travers (Bad guy from the story) would come into my house and shoot my beagle. I belived this until 3rd grade, when I realized it was just a story.

Read it! READ IT! REEEEED ITTTTT!

When I was little and learnign to read, I used to believe that chaos was pronounced "Chaa-Ose."

Anon

We always passed an antique store on the way to my grandma's house. I always thought to myself, "What is an anti-q store and what in the world would they sell there?"

tonybaloney

I remember how my mum would read me stories, and I would always assume they were true. once, though my brother told me a scary story, and I couldn't sleep, so my mum told me that not all stories are true. I called her a liar for telling me made up stories.

Anon

I used to think that "etc." at the end of a list of items meant electric. I was a very young reader, and since most everything adults did seemed strange, it didn't really occur to me to question such constructions as "dogs, cats, horses, cows, electric"

k

When I was 8 or 9 years old, I read Harry Potter, and I was convinced I was going to Hogwards too. I kept believing it until I was 11, because I didn't receive a message form Dubledore. I was so disappointed..

Dude

When I was 4 or 5, I learned how to read. But when you learn how to read, you always speak out loud so that your teacher or parent can help you along. I thought it was a group activity. So one evening at home, I was on the floor reading some children's book aloud, and my older sister got annoyed with me and said, "Andrew, be quiet and read in your head!"

I tried a page not saying anything but still taking in the words, and was amazed when I could do it! It suddenly dawned on me that I could enjoy the imaginary worlds in books in private, and this was an amazingly powerful ability.

Andrew

My mother has told me about a time when I was just starting to figure out that letters made words. She said that one time she saw me pointing to the word on the back of the toliet and I said, "E-L-G-E-R. Potty!" I thought Elger (the name of the toliet manufacturer, spelled potty.

Kristie

As a child, I was a voracious reader. Unfortunately, I didn't read aloud to anyone to correct my pronunciation. For years, I thought the word "awry" was pronounced "ow-ree". Hearing the word "awry" in conversation did nothing to dispel this belief. I jsut assumed they were two separate words.

Ian