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My experience is also that reading for pleasure has never been a widespread pursuit, at least not in my lifetime. And, as Katsunami's post demonstrates anecdotally, reading for pleasure has never had more competition. The Internet generally, Social Media, Gaming, all gets better and easier, and in a lot of cases can be better value for money, particularly when compared to agency priced ebooks.
Personally, I blame schools, and the method of teaching English. Yes, there are many people who will never want to read for pleasure no matter what. We are all different. But IMHO there is no better or surer way to kill a potential love of reading than to force High School students to read hundreds of pages, then discuss the book minutely and dissect it painfully, often extracting meanings that the author never intended and that may or may not in fact be there. Then follow this up with an examination or two. And the treatment of poems is even worse. Except for the few kids who love this, it is an excruciating experience and I think drives many off reading for life, though fortunately there do seem to be a few who do recover and often discover a love of reading later in life.
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