(DH read at 2, and was really taken aback by the idea a kid might have an interest in more complex content than they could actually read to themself. He could always read ahead of his interest level.
I think so much of this is personality. Our dd8 was like your dh, and when we tried to read to her when she was little she only wanted us to read books that she could follow along in because she knew how to read the words. Our dd10 and ds12 both loved loved loved to be read to. When we were first starting to really read to ds when he was 2-ish, we started out with the children's versions of classics like Journey to the Center of the Earth etc. We'd read one of those books to him in about 1/2 hour time, he'd be mesmerized by the story, remember every detail, and ask for another book after each was finished. Once the "asking" turned into insistent demanding we realized we'd quickly run out of children's level books so we just started reading him adult level books and he understood and remembered everything. He didn't start reading until he was 5 (as far as we know, he didn't exactly "tell" us then either, we just happened to find out). Our dd10 isn't EG like ds and she was also much more easily frightened by "scary" things (Harry Potter for instance) - but we still read to her from the classics starting when she was very young. She loved loved loved Jane Eyre - to this day it's her all-time favorite book. I'll never forget in kindergarten the teacher had the kids sitting in circle and wanted each child to tell what their favorite book was (none of the kids were really reading yet so she was expecting it to be books read to them). The other kids apparently were all mentioning typical early reader books and then dd said "Jane Eyre". The teacher pulled me over after class and told me this, and then said "That was so cute - where on earth has she heard of 'Jane Eyre'?" I told her we'd read it to her - about 100 times and it really *was* her favorite book... and the teacher gave me one of those looks, you know, the look where she's looking at you like you have bells and whistles and monsters or whatever growing out of your head.
I think that the most important thing is to take the queues from your child - from our experience there's a wide swing in what any child wants and whether or not they somehow relate to when and how well they will eventually read, I doubt that it will in anyway cause delays or challenges with reading when your ds is ready.
Best wishes,
polarbear
