An optical reading apparatus (bar code reader) including a plurality of light emitting elements, each light emitting element emitting light in different directions onto an information recording surface which has a linear recording (bar code pattern) printed thereon. A light receiving element receives reflected light from the information recording surface and generates a recording medium read signal for each light emitting element which is transmitted to a signal processing section. The signal processing section includes a plurality of conversion processing routes for converting the recording medium read signals from the plurality of light emitting elements into a plurality of display signals. Each of the display signals is then decoded separately. When a regular reflection condition occurs in a first display signal (that is, the first display signal does not produce a valid code), but does not occur in a second display signal (that is, the second display signal produces a valid code), then the signal processing circuit only outputs the accurately decoded display signal, thereby eliminating errors caused by the occurrence of the regular reflection condition.