Personally, I think reading to your children is about the best thing you can do for them. I just love it when my son comes toddling over holding a book and his blanket and says "can we READ now?". I never say no.
I totally, 100%, no holds barred, completely agree with the bold above.
I read to my DDs every night before bedtime. One poster mentioned the importance of letting the child see the book/written pages while you are reading to them. I agree with this. When the DDs and I were cuddled up with a big picture book and written words, it wasn't uncommon for them to point to a word and ask "What does this say?"
Even when they were babies, after a feeding, I would pull out a small book "A is for apple, Z is for Zebra" while I lulled them to sleep.
I don't think that I taught them to read. (eta: but I gave them a step-up when they started to learn to read in k-garten.)
I think that giving the child (2 years old) a strong introduction on the alphabet and an understanding that letters put together make a word is what's important.