First and foremost - let children see that reading is not just important to you but a pleasure. Let them catch you dipping into a book. Let them see piles of books on your bedside table, a paperback in a purse or a briefcase or beach bag. If you understand there is magic in books, they will want to discover that magic themselves.
Try leaving books from the library, a seemingly random selection, on a table in your home and see if there are any takers. Get a joke book out and write out some jokes and stick them on the fridge. Include a book as a gift for at birthdays and holidays. Take out cookbooks from the library and have your child read the recipe to you. Read to them at night if they have trouble reading themselves...let them pick a book that interests them and take turn reading the paragraphs. Get them a magazine subscription, start a book club for them and their friends, let them pick out things to read you might not adore graphic novels, Captain Underpants books, (after all they aren't telling you not to cruise through People magazine - if adults don't have to read War and Peace level literature everytime they pick up reading materials, why should kids?). Give them a build-your own-home-library allowance and let them hang out in bookstores and libraries. And hang out in those libraries and bookstores with them. You'll meet the nicest people in those places :)
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