Other ideas:
What are his interests? If he likes football, get him a book about his favourite team - like the suggestion with the graphic novels, it's a start. He may just get interested, and it works best with a topic he wants to know more about.
Oh, and there's a graphic novel of
The Hobbit: great pictures, and enough dialogues and explanations to get him started reading!
Read to him on a long trip - or get the audio books to get him interested. Then stop somewhere in the middle (at a particularly exciting spot!) because there's no more time, and see if he doesn't want to finish it on his own.
Get him to read to you while you're doing something with your hands - maybe you can choose and provide the book, and even if he wants a different one, you're showing interest in him by listening to it.
Personal interest is the best way to entice young people (or older ones!) to read. Your own enthusiasm may be the spark that is needed to get the fire burning. Once they're hooked, you probably won't have to encourage them any longer...