An image reading apparatus includes a carriage having mounted thereon a linear light source and an image sensor and a reference pattern member disposed at a reference position located toward the first direction from a home position. The current location of the carriage is judged relatively to first and second areas that are divided by a boundary defined in advance at a location toward the first direction from the reference position. The first area is located toward the first direction and the second area is located toward the second direction. Immediately after the power is turned ON, current location information indicating whether the carriage is currently located in the first area or the second area is read from the nonvolatile memory. The carriage is first moved to the reference position and then moved a predetermined distance in the second direction, so that the carriage is duly positioned at the home position.