"Grabbing" the reader.

I'm having the same reaction to Facebook that I had to Twitter.  There isn't enough original content.  Most of it seems to be links to other things.  That's disappointing.

Meanwhile, I've held to my pledge of not going to Reddit.  I'm still disgusted that someone slipped in a murderous GIF.  But more, it was a massive time -suck.  The whole internet is a massive time-suck.

Writing requires quiet time for me, lots of thinking and meditating.  I figure that's good for me, no matter what ends up happening to the books. 

Was having a discussion about ebooks yesterday with a couple of guys who buy them.  Both of them said, if the book doesn't grab them in the first chapter, they don't buy it.

Something about that bothers me a little.  What do they mean by "grab?"

I was thinking back to my first book, where the first chapter is the hero sitting in a library, watching the dust swirl and his mentor reading and contemplating a coming ceremony.

Blah.  Right?

Hey, grab the reader by having a barbarian come through the window swinging a mace.  They have a vicious fight, and he ends it by quipping something and bashing the invaders head in.  Did that grab you?

I'm always a little leery about making generalizations about "young" people these days, but it does seem that they require a jolt of something "cool" right off the bat. 

It's all well and good to have a "cool" idea, but that isn't the same thing as a well developed story. 
I decided one of the great things about Lord of the Rings is how long it takes to get going, that he spends time setting the table.  Then he delivers.

Going back to my fear of generalizations about generations -- I think a good story is probably a good story, and there are lots of ways to "grab" someone. 

I have to believe that.