Reading is a fundamental start to learning and essential in life. It is one of the great pleasures of life, I am sure you would agree. No child is too young to join the Library. When I had my second child I was given a gift from the local public library. It was a gorgeous baby book about a baby duck and his mother, plus an invitation for my one week old son to join the library. I was suprised about that! But it is great, to think that everyone is welcome at the Library. The Library offers a huge array of books for all ages as well as other resources including audio and video. You can even use the internet to use minti and other parenting resources.
I like that the public library is free and you have so much choice. A few weeks later change them over. I personally think books are quite expensive. I don't pay full price for my kids and I usually give them as gifts. I encourage my kids to look after them as I would of the library books.
This may suprise some people - *59% of Australians belong to a public library and more people visit the library than go to the cinema or the video store (probably because its free!)
They also have free toddler activities and school holiday activities. So if you want to occupy your baby or  kids for a while why not head to the local library. The only problem we have in going to the library is picking which books to get. We also have troble leaving the place - its so much fun. My husband is a great reader, he just loves to read and I am glad he has passed on that love to our daughter. Here's hoping he will do the same for our boys also.

* stat courtesy Library Service Development, Moreland Library (Victoria, Australia)