Totally agree with mashy re learning points of Dr Seuss books. I actually like Dr Seuss very much. Hahahahahaha...The rhyming thing is a BIG thing for kids, esp at this age.
While I have Eric Carle's books, I find them better for kids who are older. Their stories are a bit too long for Y. e.g. Hungry Caterpillar is great for teaching Days of the week, colours, food and of course, the caterpillar which turns into a butterfly.
The other books are also OK. The Secret Birthday Message Book is good for prepositions of place - but that is also at a later age...My First Book of Words (not sure of the titles - they are in Y's room adn he is asleep) is also not bad, but also at an older age, where they learnt to match words to their objects. From Head to Toe is good for body parts, confidence building and getting the children to do the actions. Plus repeating the words "Can you do it?", "I can do it!" everytime, helps them to read those words.
Dr Seuss, on the other hand is fun, wacky and zany. I like them because I grew up with them and also because I love the way they talk "rubbish"!!! LOL!!! For me, I believe that they will have their whole life to be "serious".
I studied art psychology (long time ago) for young kids. The funny thing is that kids will paint whatever they want and they can paint things like purple trees and adults will eventually tell them that trees are green/brown; and they will change but acutally when you look at trees properly they have different shades of various colours (e.g. there are different kinds of reds - blue reds, yellow reds and orange reds) and that is actually how artists are "formed". They paint trees in various colours. ;-P
Another author I like is Sandra Boynton. Her books rhyme and are very easy and great to teach young kids how to read. Y loves her books.
I also like Walker Books - their stories usually have a very nice moral.
I have to say that I read everything to Y. When I feed him, I sometimes sit on the floor - he has an old fashioned kind of chair for babies which is for the floor and I sometimes read the newspapers in between spoonfuls. When he make too much noise, I just read aloud whatever I have been reading - "e.g. Oh dear...volcanic ash over Europe, flights are cancelled..." etc, etc.
While my husband and I are voracious readers, I hope that he will be one too but you never know, right?!?!