Very inspiring article. I am a teacher too (a private one), and as you can guess easily, my students are not fan of books either...

For me the reason is simple. It is not a dislike, it is the need for immediate gratification and the current trend concerning the lack of focus.

Starting a new book, positionning oneself in context of the author and then diving into it requires effort and focus. Then, once you are in, it flows and it is a real joy. but there is this initial "activation energy" that is so hard to climb up nowadays for students.

Once, i had this student having a lack of faith in enjoying life, had serious attention issues, and I was afraid that these factors together could trigger or reinforce existing psychological problems. I searched a lot to find her a book, "the art of happyness" by the Daila Lama, in Turkish (her native language, to ease the diving-in). I got it just in time for give it to her for her 18nth Birthday. She was thrilled by the present, but I am pretty sure, she never opened it and that now, it is taking dust on a shelf...