Okay, that borders on abnormal. Kids LOVE their parents to read to them. That’s why it’s “simple”.
I think everyone needs to find their own reading style too. Not everyone is a book a week person or whatever consistent number.
I’m very particular when I read. I have a really hard time reading single books. They feel incomplete to me. Instead I read book series where they develop a whole world over several books. I can go months without reading but when I find something I like I will binge read the entire series in a few days.
Like someone mentioned up thread, I rediscovered reading through audio books. I worked in a talking books library and we were not only allowed but encouraged to listen to books while working. My librarian friends got me hooked on an urban fantasy book series and boom, my love for fantasy worlds which are best created by books was back.
Sorry @JustOneDad , not every kid loves to be read to. My son also hated it, though he wouldn’t cry about it. He would just squirm and be miserable. When I was finished he would happily jump up and start playing with his toys.
Maybe it was in the execution. I’ve never met a child who didn’t want a story.
Seconding what other posters have said, I recommend that your son be tested for a learning disability. It seems, from your brief description, that it is his level of reading comprehension overall that is at issue. If reading is a mental or physical struggle, it’s not something a person will choose to do for leisure. Good luck.
And reading doesn’t just mean novels.
Kids who don’t like fiction will often love history, biography, science, etc.
Miami- doctors do a LOT of reading once they are in practice and out of training. My primary care physician reads thousands of pages a week- clinical trials, public health journals, summaries from pharma companies on drugs in development, proposals from other doctors on collaborations and research opportunities, etc. A neighbor who is a specialist just had to re-qualify for the Boards which involved 6 months of weekend seminars and training programs, and hours and hours of reading every week (in addition to a full time clinical practice, and this is someone who has been a doctor for almost 20 years).
So your D is not out of the woods yet!
OP- when was your son’s last vision test?
@JustOneDad Then I guess you haven’t met enough children. My eldest loved it. We read for hours a day and it was never enough. We read aloud for many years after she’d reached adult competency herself. I ran a reader’s theatre program for advanced readers for years and tutored countless struggling readers through the elementary school. My youngest? He would not tolerate it. Didn’t matter if I brought out the pop-ups, the noisy books, the truck books, funny, sad, superheros… I’d have to throw his toys on my daughter’s floor and hope he was soaking up something as I read to my eldest. He just doesn’t love it and still won’t pick up a book unless someone requires it. Reading is only a tool for gaining information to him.
Not every kid loves it and there are kids you can read to 12 hours a day who will still struggle to read themselves for reasons that have nothing to do with parental incompetence.
Two of mine read a lot, the third has some challenges with reading, processing etc. She used to want to be a person who read books on philosophy, poetry and so on but I have noticed at 23 she has kind of accepted herself. I used to worry about it in teen years until I realized how much reading and writing she was actually doing online. Even Facebook really helped her with her writing and comfort with words. We did not have a tv growing up and she has little interest in tv or movies, but social networking has actually really helped her, as has keeping a diary.
It is interesting to think about the fact that around the turn of the century, in the late 1800’s, reading of fiction was discouraged by parents much the way tv was for a few generations. Novels were considered a distraction without much merit in themselves: maybe the 19th century version of a reality show!
My D did not do a lot of purely recreational reading in middle school and early high school outside of Accelersted Reader which she was required to do thought sophomore year. Between that and her other school reading she just didn’t have time. AR was really annoying at her schools and we were all glad when she was done.
Her reading ability is above average but she’s not a very fast reader. My son had mostly the same AR requirements but he reads faster so it wasn’t as time consuming for him. He read 2-3 fiction books a month on average through most of his teen years. Of course he also rushed through his schoolwork so he had more free time in general 
Oh, but you have to keep at it. There is an age at which children will change from wanting to play with something to wanting to hear the story, and it varies.
“Kids LOVE to be read to”, is a general statement that could hardly be more valid. I can go into a kindergarten class of 50 kids and ask who wants to hear one to get 50 hands. I’m sorry if you have an exception.
This statement came about as simple advice to parents who want their children to be academically successful. That most often is rooted in kids who are good readers from an early age and the easiest (and funnest) way to make that happen is by reading to them.
Kids come in all flavors. We had two exceptionally avid readers, including one that was ADHD-ish and NVLS-ish (and should not have been a good speller, but she was). She should have been doing homework during some of her hs reading time, but at the time she had fine grades… who knew?
When the kids were around 4th/5th grade, I’d try to read books they had recently completed. (Yay - I finally got to read “A Wrinkle in Time”, which my childhood friends had loved). That was helpful common ground when they were in less talkative moods.
I’m an avid reader but know the challenge of reading books that one is not inherently interested in. I often read the books my children were assigned for school; I called it “sympathy reading.” I had never read “The Scarlet Letter” before one of my daughters had to read it in high school. Very interesting story; extremely dry writing.
In my opinion, the supposed reading incentives that schools use, actually discourage reading for pleasure- just a side note. Some of their tactics are reminiscent of smoking cessation programs: write down what pages you read and when before bed, for instance. And the rewards and competitions give the message that reading itself is not worthwhile, or, rather, books.
I read a lot as a kid, but not so much during HS and college. Between schoolwork, school activities, socializing, part time jobs, etc. there was a lot more occupying my time. As an adult I read a lot (average 2-3 books a week).
“About 5 months ago I realized he was moving his lips when he read. He’s several years past that to be appropriate, so I made him stop doing that. Using test scores, I’d bet he’s 2-3 grade levels behind at this point.”
Oh golly! What makes you think that that is the reason why he’s reading below grade level? Even if it is a result of his being below grade level, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is slowing him down further. In fact as mentioned above, it might be a compensation strategy that helps him understand the text better. When he does get evaluated for LDs, encourage him to discuss this strategy (and any others that you don’t know about because they aren’t so obvious to you) with the person who does the reading screening with him. That person will want to know what strategies he’s developed on his own, and how well they have worked for him so that those strategies can be used to help him master more advanced ones.
@compmom , that’s my feeling about AR as it was done for my kids. They had to read things at or above their level and AR reading levels are ridiculous. Some of Faulkner’s novels are rated elementary–give me a break. Then our schools did not allow them to read books that were “too popular” because it was too easy to cheat. Of course obscure booms aren’t on the list at all. It was a huge source of annoyance in middle and high school.
I’ve probably only read a total of 10 or so books outside of school in the past 10 years, so I’ll go with 1 a year.
If you really want to get him to read, maybe try getting him to read something other than what you like. For instance, I personally have no interest in reading any novels which is basically all we read in high school. Maybe he might be more interested in Philosophy or Economics or something else.
Both our teenage boys are voracious leisure readers. Despite having Kindles, they are “old school” and prefer the old fashioned printed ones, typically stuffing multiple, fat, hardback books in their backpacks for a flight. When they are flying alone and have long airport transits, they will unprompted, buy a book for themselves in the airport shop and sometimes even surprise us by buying a book for us.
“I’m an avid reader but know the challenge of reading books that one is not inherently interested in.” - This is the whole point. Imagine when practically no books are interesting for you? This is exactly how I feel even when I tired to read again my most favorite book. I regret that I did, I destroyed a very precious memory and now I cannot say that it was my favorite book! It is like visiting place that you used to love to visit and all of sudden realize that you do not like it any more. Your precious memory of the best place on earth is gone…
Well, my kid after certain age could hardly finish any books outside of school required and I understand her perfectly! She hated the college English class, she said it was way too easy writing, easy A, she learned nothing, but she wasted so much time on reading boring novels, the time that she rather would have spent on something in her other interests. Thank goodness she needed only one semester because of AP credit.
Both my H & I are avid readers. My son never read one book for leisure and was a slow reader because he didn’t read enough and only what was required. I blame the silly reading assignments starting in kindergarten where they had to read X minutes a day. Once he reached X minutes book was closed. I was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep up in college with a major and minor that had heavy reading load (approx 1000 pages a week.) Didn’t effect him one bit - he did very well in college, graduated in May with a good job lined up.