After reading this article in the Boston Globe, I thought back to my elementary school days and the strong emphasis we had on reading. We had programs like Book It! and Reading Is Fundamental. Since I don’t know any kids currently in elementary school, I’m not sure if these programs still exist, or if they’re treated with the same fervor as they were in my day. Hey, we used to rag on kids constantly if they were lagging behind in Book It. After all, we all wanted that pizza party.

A new report has been released that shows an alarming downward trend of youngsters reading for pleasure. This isn’t necessarily fiction or non-fiction, but reading in general. Let’s cite some statistics.

When you’re 13, your mind is in a rapid development. Adolescence is in its early stages, and things are starting to seem different. It would make sense, then, to test various stimulus during this stage. Unfortunately, reading is not at the forefront of the average 13-year-old’s mind. Only 30 percent read daily.

At 17, just before college, 19 percent of kids never read for pleasure. This is quite disturbing. I say this because I never read for pleasure at age 17.

Oh, my friends did. They were busy reading The Lord of the Rings, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, and other sci-fi and fantasy literature (I have one friend who is obsessed with Philip K. Dick). But sci-fi wasn’t for me. So instead of finding my own niche in literature, I abandoned reading altogether.

What did I do? Probably what a lot of kids nowadays do. I watched a lot of wrestling and baseball. I rounded up various friends on a nightly basis to go waste time. And when I couldn’t find friends to go out with, I sat home and sulked. All told, from my Sophomore through Senior years, I probably read four books for pleasure (and I’m counting A Clockwork Orange, which was a summer reading assignment).

So when a study cites the average 15 through 24 year old spending two to 2.5 hours a day in front of the teevee and only seven minutes reading, my ears perk up. Because that was me. And I don’t wish that one anyone.

My friends who read for pleasure did rather well for themselves. They got into good to great schools: Colgate, Johns Hopkins, Penn State, Wake Forest, William and Mary, UNC, and even Rutgers (though the kid had gotten into RPI). Me? Oh, I got into a few rinky-dink state schools, but my parents, noting my complete lack of work ethic, forced me to go to community college.

Two years later, I still wasn’t reading. I didn’t have my associates degree, a standard after two years in CC hell. I had even ditched out on a final for a class I was failing…because I hadn’t read the goddamn material!

But I was a schmoozer. I did a little research, and found out that I could easily gain admittance to a Pennsylvania state school. So I sent out my application, and 30 days later I’m enrolled at a four-year school. But when I got there, I didn’t have a single friend. Not one. So what did I do to pass the time?

Well, at first I played Final Fantasy VII. But after I beat that thoroughly, I took to — guess what — reading. This started out by reading The New York Times online, and progressed to fiction. I took five classes that first semester, recording an A in four a B in the other. But my delve into reading pretty much ended there.

The next semester, I joined a frat, thus didn’t have much time to read. Then I transferred to Rutgers, where I fell in with that chapter of the fraternity, living at the house and all-in-all acting like a drunken degenerate.

Then came graduation and the struggle to find a job. I had plenty of time on my hands, so I started taking trips to my local library. Soon, I found myself completing books in under a week, whereas it took me nearly a month to get through a title in the past. After about a year of regimented reading, I finally landed a job. But I did not cut out the reading.

Now? I make a living as a writer. I read about a book a week, depending on my freelance workload. I’m writing fiction daily. And I’m finally becoming recognized for being good at what I do, which is my aspiration in everything I do.

Sure, I’m using myself as an example of someone who overcame not reading early in life (though I did read a lot as a youngster; by the age 11 I had read Catcher in the Rye and Jaws). But I don’t think that many kids will follow my path. Why? Because in order to do that, they have to be surrounded by ambitious and hard-working peers. I wouldn’t have made these strides if it wasn’t for a strong network of friends and family. And honestly, how many kids are going to be the only one in their group that doesn’t read, or really aspire to anything? It’s a rare predicament.

The point is, though: Go read a book! I promise, if you stick with a reading regimen, your life will become fuller and richer. You’ll think of things you never thought you would. Trust me. I’m not only the spokesman for this cause, I’m also a client.

More importantly, if you have kids, get them into the reading habit. If they can’t yet read, read to them. If they can, set them up with books they might like. Please, please, don’t start them off with anything classic. Make it modern; they’ll be able to connect with the material more easily. Baby steps. That’s the key.