My Secret Plan is Working!

(insert maniacal laugh here)

Little Professor hates to read fiction. It's been a constant battle since he taught himself to read at three and a half. He will read science books, encyclopedias, text books, and any other based-in-fact book he can get his hands on (and then recite it ad nauseum), but hand him a novel and it's "too hard," " too boring," and there's "no point."
This is particularly hard on me because I LOVE to read. I'll read anything I can get my hands on, and have been known to go through a dozen books in a week. (Who needs clean dishes anyway?)
I've been trying different genres with him and he has actually enjoyed some of them. He's reading Little House on the Prairie by request, because Little House in the Big Woods was required reading that he actually enjoyed. It's still non-fiction, since it's a sort of autobiography, but it READS like a novel, and he's still enjoying it, so I'm happy about that. That's still part of school work, though, since it goes along with our whole American History unit.
I really want to expand his reading horizons and help him learn to love it, and read not because he has to pick a book for school, but because it's FUN!
So, I browsed the library last week and found The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, which is a great book. Little Professor whined that he already has too much reading to do, but we checked it out anyway. And it's just been sitting around the house. So last night, I put it on the shelf next to his bed and just told him, "It's there if you're bored or can't sleep." Poor kid has insomnia, so he does often have trouble falling asleep. He told me, "No way, I'm not reading that!" but I just left it there, just in case.
Well...I just tucked him in a little while ago and he told me, "You know what, Mom? I read a few chapters of that Indian book, and it's pretty good so far!"