books for baby
Get as many books as you can in the large board book format. That way it's nice and big for the baby to see, and also won't be destroyed when the baby wants to start reaching for pages. A couple soft books are nice when they are really little, just to get used to and excited about the idea of holding books and turning pages -- we liked the Lamaze books, like this basic Discovery Book. There's also an awesome series of "indestructibles" books that are made of Tyvek and can survive any amount of drool, attempts to tear, etc. At first they can really only see black and white, so high contrast books are very exciting for them in the first couple of months. It's also a good idea to register for the classics (Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, etc.) so you have them marked as purchased on your registry and you avoid multiple copies.
Lastly, my sister made this awesome list of the top 100 picture books for young children.
