Motivating a 5th Grader To Read

My 11 year old son is not nearly as motivated with reading on his own as he use to while in pre-school and in his earlier years in kindergarten.  While he used to be extremely excited about reading books then, it's like "pulling teeth" to even get him to "really read" his required school books.  His grades for all subjects except spelling and reading are low.  When he does read, it is done very quickly.  Reading his history and science books seem to interest him more than reading for fluency and comprehension and spelling and vocabulary.  My husband and I know he can do better.  We are concerned that this will be an even bigger problem when he goes into middle school/junior high.  Any tips on motivating a 5th grader for reading on his own would be most appreciated!

Perhaps some of the motivation might come from finding some seriously good books for him.  I remember being about that age and reading on my own simply because the books were engrossing.  I Googled a list of some potentially interesting reads for you: http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/showarticle/678.

Also, some of the motivation might come from you limiting his other possibilities for leisure time.  For example, how much is he watching TV or playing video games?  Maybe limiting those activities, swapping them for a really, really good book might help him catch the reading bug.