reading

When I was little I used to believe that the blank pages at the end of the book were for writing a different ending if you didn't like the original ending to a book.

Becca

When I was younger, there was an ad for Looney Tunes that took place in a theater. At the end, Bugs Bunny lit up a sign reading "APPLAUSE", and everyone cheered.

I misread it as "APPLESAUCE" every time it aired. I didn't question this, I just assumed that the audience were big fans of applesauce.

Maryanne

As a kid I read the line "won't stick to most dental work" on the side of chewing gum packages. I thought dentists must use special paper in their offices that wouldn't allow gum to stick to it.

Sandy

When I was about 4 years old my mother said that I would learn how to read when I went to school. I was scared I'd get sent to jail because I already knew how to read.

Anon

When I was 7 I used to pick up one of my 'long' storybooks and start reading, then I'd sort of glance up to see who was around and I'd sneakily flip a huge chunk of the pages of the book. I would continue like this, reading little bits and skipping huge chunks until the book ended. I did it because I thought people would be impressed that I had finished the book so quickly. No one was.

Anon

I thought the bass and tremble knob on the car radio said bass and terrible and I always wondered why would anyone set it to that if it sounded terrible

Eindrek

I thought vegetarians couldn't read Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Aretia

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

Katya

When I was little, I would bike past the City Motor Company on my way to the library. However, I thought it was the City MURDER Company. I was scared to go past it for years.

Anon

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

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

I thought the word debut was actually "day view" since it was the first time the thing saw the light of day. Even when I did read the word for the first time I thought it was pronounced "debbut" till someone corrected me

Alberto Richardson

I thought there was a such thing as a writing stutter and people who had it would write things like "They went to the bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb-boat"

Nate

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

I thought the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings books were written in the middle ages (I think maybe I got Middle Earth confused with middle ages)

Neverwinter Nate

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

When me an my little brother were little, we took a family vacation road trip to Disney World. On the way there, my little brother would ask me what the billboards said because he wasn't old enough to read yet and I was. I told him some of the roadside billboards near Disney World said, "Tommy is a a dummy." and he believed me.

Anon

My parents both work in the medical field and there's this big book at home entitled "anatomy". Now, I thought my brother Anthony was named after that book, since my parents loved anatomy so much...

Anathomy's sister

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

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