Books are your best friends

I've just read 2 very inspiring posts by Orchid and Tharini - on reading. And it set me down memory lane as well.

I don't remember being read to as a child. But I do remember lots of books in our house. And my fav elder cousins reading books. Probably that set me off on the reading road. A road well taken. Of course my mom was always around to help me through with meanings and pronunciations of words I didn't get.

When sonny was born I was determined to get him into a reading mode too. When he was 6 months old - I first ventured into our local library to get books. Thanks to the local government rules - we soon found out that we had been moved to another library much further away - and so sonny's reading sessions stopped. We bought him some picture books which he just loved. Very often I would feel a tug on my pants and would turn to see sonny clenching a book, demanding to be read to.

But that seems to be the extent of his patience for books. He just wont sit still while I read out a story to him. He seems more interested in turning the pages all at once or tearing it apart. I have often wondered, if this is because, the books are in English and we don't speak English at home. Or maybe they just aren't the right books. My mother suggested, I tell him a story at bedtime or at dinner time, sans book, just so that he gets the idea of what a story is. Have tried that too, albeit half-heartedly.

While we have carried his picture books with us to India, they seem to languish in the corner all the time while sonny runs in the lawn like a mad banshee. Forced sessions with books mean that pages get turned furiously and book gets shut.

Anyone out there with suggestions, advice, anything on how I can encourage sonny to sit down with me and a book. May be book recommendations?