We used the format of a book pass, where students all bring a book (I also threw several in from my classroom library and the school library), and we pass them around in small groups, giving kids a chance to have exposure to 50 or more texts in a single class period.
The discouraging thing about teaching is when a couple students in each class go through the motions of looking at a couple books in each basket and then sit with a blank page in front of them.
It gets more encouraging when students with discerning taste walk out with three or four books on their lists. They will have a book on the back burner, and maybe they will even look forward to it.
My favorite part about a book pass, however, is when students (and this is at least a third in each class) are just hungry for reading material, and they write down 20-30 books. One student in my last class of the day couldn't wait to check something out from the classroom library: she had to take it home that night.
A hunger for books is what I hope to instill in as many students as I possibly can.
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