How to cultivate interest in reading?

You will note that in recent literature, there are those who advocate using flash cards to stimulate the development of the babies' brains and there are those who simply advocate plain reading and many other more school of thoughts.

Personally, based on experiences with my 2 little ones, I feel that there is no one best method. Each child is so unique in his/her own way and that is how God has made everyone of us. Therefore, for those mommies who are stressed out just because their babies are not responding to flash cards, take it easy and try other methods.
Both of my kids are rather easy-going. They are open to almost any kind of educational material, predominantly different types of books and flashcards. I personally subsribe to taking the Q from the kid instead of imposing on the poor kid what has been written and published as "The one best" method. There are no hard and fast rules in teaching young children. Do what they like best.

For the first time today, I asked Ethan for the various shapes described in a book and he got all the shapes right. I asked for star, circle, triangle and rectangle. It was indeed a pleasant surprise :)