When my twin boys were born, I was very excited to read to them. They had received a lot of neat books as gifts, and I was looking forward to sharing their books with them.
What I wasn't expecting was them not focusing on a book for more than a second or two so I could read to them! Reading to babies can be challenging when there are so many things in the world to explore, but here are some tips that have worked for me.
There are many different types of books available for babies. Board books and cloth books work best for babies so they can handle them and drool on them without doing much damage to them.
If your baby isn't interested in one type of book, keep introducing different books until you find one he is interested in. One of my sons loves books with pictures of real babies in them. He loves to look at their smiling faces. For Christmas he received a board book called "Tom Arma's Paw Print Parade". Tom Arma (a famous baby photographer) has a new line of baby board books available at http://www.amazon.com. My son has another board book called "Happy Baby Words" from http://www.priddybooks.com. This book pictures babies getting dressed, eating, etc. He loves to look at the pictures in that book.
My other son loves cloth books. Sesame Street has a book called "Get Dressed with Elmo" that is his favorite. This book is available at http://www.softplayforkids.com. This is an interactive book where a toddler can zip zippers, fasten buttons, attach velcro, etc. A baby can't do these activities, of course, but my son loves to flip the soft pages and play with the items in the book.
My boys are 10 1/2 months old, and I find that they will look at books by themselves longer than they will let me read to them. I make sure to have books in every room of the house that they find when they are crawling around, and they will stop and look at them (of course they are finding my books too!). They especially like looking at books in bed. When they are going to sleep they will lie in their beds and roll around with their favorite book in their hands. I've peeked in their room to find one of them sitting in his bed turning the pages of his favorite Elmo book. If I were to try to read it to him he would instantly try to crawl away.
I figure just exposing my boys to books at this age will influence their desire to want to read, even if they don't feel like indulging my desire to read to them. I have found one time they will let me read to them, however...when I plop them in bed! Right when the tears are about to start I pull out their favorite book and read it to them in their crib. One son stands holding on to the edge of his crib (hoping I'll change my mind and pick him back up) while I read his book to him. I have a captive audience and they are distracted from their initial reaction to being put in bed. After I read their stories they generally let me leave without a fuss!
Happy reading!
(Note to publishers: A baby photo is available at http://www.christian-parent.com/baby-books.shtml if you would like to include it with the article.)