Some of the answers here... Yikes!
If you don't think a book is fun, then don't read it to your kid. Storytime is supposed to be fun for everyone, including mum and dad!
Your child should be picking books, absolutely! You may be surprised at some of the books your non-reader will gravitate to. What's to say a small child might not grab the Ginsburg book for no other reason than because she looks like grandma? Just please, never ever do what I've seen parents in bookstores do... exclaim, "Ugh! That's boring! You don't want that! Here's this one's got kitties. You like kitties, right?"
YOU should be picking books, too. Because, as a parent, it isn't
just your job to cater to your child's interests. It's also to introduce them to things that interest and excite you, as well. If the mere thought of the Supreme Court makes you gag, then by all means - pick something else! See above, storytime is supposed to be fun for everyone.
It's not an either/or. Chicka-chicka-boom-boom and Moo-baa-la-la-la absolutely have their place on your child's bookshelf. But there's
also room for the Ginsberg bio, and the Existential Giraffe, and Kat Kong and whatever else catches your eye and tickles your (adult) fancy. You don't even have to read children's books to your child! Read whatever you like. Read from your new copy of
National Geographic. Read them the history of the world. It doesn't matter, because ultimately if you're enjoying what you're reading, your child will almost certainly enjoy it, too. There's absolutely nothing "pretentious" about sharing your interests with your child.
I used to read selected bits of the newspaper to my kids in the morning. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't. Whenever we didn't know what to do, they'd grab a favourite book and we'd read. Many times a day. My daughter's first sentence was, "Read to you?" (She meant to say "read to me?", but didn't understand the difference between "you" and "me" yet.)
And if your child finds what you're reading at bedtime a bit boring... you know what happens then? They drift off to sleep to the sound of your voice. And that's the best ending to a story I can possibly imagine.