Choosing course reading materials for students
One way to get students to read is to assign some sort of assessment in relation to the reading. It could be a quiz, project, paper, or whatever you believe is necessary. They must be required to do something with the knowledge they obtain from the reading in order to motivate them to read it. In many ways the assessment awakens a "need" in the student to read. 

To ask today's student to read for the sake of knowledge often does not work. There are too many things competing for their time to read something they do not have have too.