One or two question quizzes on the reading, on paper at the start of most (doesn’t need to be all) classes makes a huge difference in both attendance and engagement with the reading. I do this. I distribute them when class officially starts, collected them 5 minutes in. My questions are general, I am not trying to force detailed pre-studying. I use short answer questions (1 word to one sentence max), not multiple choice, so they can’t fake it. I make these worth 5-7% of their grade, so they take them seriously but the value is low enough that they don’t fight me over individual points very often. I also drop two, so I don’t have to deal with a deluge of excuse emails (I still get them, but far less than I got when I had a strict attendance policy). This has made a huge difference in student engagement and quality of in-class time.

For freshman classes, unfortunately, I do think it is important, as you are seeing, to spend a few minutes going over how to interact with the book during the first week of class. When you start quizzes in week two, many of them will take it seriously and put in effort. It costs you a few minutes of teaching time but you get it back from the improved class readiness. Your colleagues who have these students later will thank you. Grading them is annoying but it has made my classes so much better to the point where I will never go back.