I don't think that we owned very many books when I was a little kid; I could be misremembering that, but I know we were always enthusiastic library users. But I am sure that we must have owned a copy of the Little Golden Book We Like Kindergarten because I nearly had that thing memorized, and I still remember the weird little alien creature that the MC made in art class. I used to stare at that thing for the longest time. This book totally worked on me; I still like kindergarten.
Likely everyone has a list of Little Golden Book favorites; they've been around for decades. One of the most popular is The Poky Little Puppy, judging from all the other titles with Poky. Christmas, Pumpkin Patch, etc. I guess you can't go wrong with the formula: it's a puppy, it's little, it's poky. It works. I remember that we had a record of it that we played constantly.
I loved the farm pictures in The Little Red Hen. I was so glad that she didn't give the layabouts any bread. I hope I'm remembering this right.
A stack of Little Golden Books make a great baby gift. They have lots of popular, newer characters, but I always go with the classics. Other people must still buy them up because they're readily available. (Having said that, I do kind of want the Moana one for myself.)
I've also found other Little Golden merch. I've bought a board game for some kids. I looked for it online to link it, but I could only find it for sale on eBay. I also bought some mellamine dishes at World Market. They had a set with a bowl, fork and cup with poky, the little red hen, and some other characters. I wanted to link those, too, but I can't find them online. I got the poky little puppy cup for myself. Medicine works better if you take it with a sip of water from a poky little puppy cup, even if you're middle-aged.
This series has something for everyone: fairy tales, farm animals, steam engines. They're a great size and weight for little readers, and the illustrations are always adorable.