Is Reading a Lost Art?

I'm both boggled and saddened by my latest "What's up with this world?" experience and here's hoping that most of you will be too. Considering you've taken the time to stop by and read this, I'm assuming that the concept that reading for pleasure is a dying art is disturbing to you as well. So here's the story of the day:

J. and I went to the mall last night. (Robin Sparkles fans are certainly chuckling right about now, be sure to check out the video if you don't know what I mean.) In any event, the mall in itself gives me more than enough fodder for my "what's up world" blog entries, but I digress.

J. went to have his haircut at Mastercuts and I decided to wander down to the bookstore and see what was cooking. Came back just in time for J. to cash out. Here's how the conversation went.

J: Find anything good?
Me: Yeah, I bought this (holds up novel here) book and was looking at one called "666 Urban Legends." It looked kind of cool.
Cashier: That's funny, we were just talking about reading.

Not, "We were just talking about reading book X" or "We were just talking about what we're reading" but "We were just talking about reading." She was truly amazed that I had a book and they had just talked about the process of reading.

J. filled me in later. As he was having his hair cut, the aesthetician, who was also the cashier, was polling her colleagues, asking them "Do you read?" Apparently, the 3 that she asked did not. Did not read. At all.

She then asked J. who answered affirmatively and, when prompted, listed off the past few books he had read. She was stunned and told him she'd gotten a book from the library but didn't really like it. My question: did she not like the book or did she not like to read?

What's up with the world? Has the Internet completely won out? Is reading a lost art?