My favorite writers in the world say you must grab the reader in the first line. If you don't they put the book down and grab for another. I've met writers (published and unpublished) that just don't go with that train of thought. They have to put down a description or a setting. Some say a mixture of both. Get them hooked and describe the relevant stuff and keep the reader engaged.
When I go on my book shopping endeavors I do tend to look at the cover, read the back, open to Chapter 1 (not the prologue) and read until I can put it down. If I want to read more past page 1, I usually buy the book. But lately, I've been picky. If they don't have a first good line, I wonder if this writer has the wit or skill to engage me. This might not be fair but I need something to prove to me that I can identify that this book is for me. The decrease of time makes it less likely for me to read the whole first page. I've gone through book isles looking for that first line to grab me. I can remember only one first line and it was by Neil Gaman --
There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife.
Best (exploitative word here) hook ever -- EVAR! Oh, except for "Call me Ismael." Today the hook would have said, Call me a drunk mofo with a bad attitude and a misfit that doesn't fit anywhere. Yeah, I like the original. But you have to understand where people's heads were at to understand "Ismael". Mofo and a misfit that doesn't fit anywhere would be today's language of "Ismael".
So do you judge a book by it's cover, hook and back explanation? Or do you dive deeper?
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