  Back before we had kids, John and I dreamed about reading the classics to them. We've waited in anticipation for Aidan to get old enough to start _something_ with.
Last time we drove to New Mexico (Thanksgiving, yes, it was really that long ago), I tried to start Rip van Winkle with no success. This trip, I embarked upon Little House on the Prairie to limited success. I should say, different success, because the breakthrough was my own.
Laura's adventures are a little more action-packed so Aidan can pick up on a few more images. But I thought about the amazing research done by Children's Television Workshop that produced the break-through in children's programming first espoused by Blue's Clues. They found that not only do kids love to watch the same program a zillion times (I could have told them that, we just finished our 200th viewing of Nemo from San Antonio to Houston), but they actually gleam a deeper and different level of knowledge and understanding from each additional viewing. Based on this, I realized that I have to groom my child to listen to me read just as I groomed them both to watch TV. Like most parents reading this, we've always been huge readers to the kids. We endeavor to read every day at least once, preferably a few times.
We don't read them to sleep after I sat through a lecture back in college where a researcher found that habit taught kids to get sleepy when reading rather than keep attention on the text. We sing to sleep, it's much more pleasant. Aidan's books have been getting a little bit longer, but they're still one-sitting start to finish. I'm hoping to read the same book, bit by bit, over weeks, and then embark upon the next in eager anticipation. After this start, I realize I'll probably be reading one book, then the next, then maybe another, but then returning to do them all again.
John wants to do Narnia next. Having decided this was our hold-back, we've adjusted our visual for success from the kids paying perfect attention as we read to reading out loud, with the other parent modeling paying attention, and allowing the kids to be on the floor in front of us with quiet busywork (like coloring maybe). We hope that, in time, they'll pay more and more attention, until eventually, they listen in rapt anticipation.
Reading the classics over and over will at least ensure we get a good handle on the text. I notice how intricately I can take apart Spirited Away, Power Puff Girls, or even Nemo (there's not much to take there, though) after seeing (mostly hearing) them so many times. 
