But I can't go that slowly because Red King needs food (and water and sleep) badly!
I had one character that spent the first half of the first day reading a magazine, then raided a house in the afternoon, killed some zombies, got some food and warm clothing, then hightailed it back to the shelter. Couldn't get any real sleep because kept waking up hungry and/or thirsty. Finally took NyQuil to sleep, only to wake up too cold. Put winter clothes on, woke up from being too hot. Once I finally got my shit all sorted, it was morning.
Went into an office tower the next day, got trapped in a room and killed by a horde. That's the only game that's made it to Day 2.
Don't try to read anything your first few days. Focus on gathering food/clean water and setting up a secure area. By far your best bet is an isolated house/shelter/cabin/public works facility, ~7-8 map tiles away from the nearest city. If there's swamp or fungaloids nearby, bail and make a new character. Just keep in mind that as long as you have 2 watertight containers, a weapon, and a fire-starter of some sort you can keep yourself fed and watered forever with small animals cooked and water purified over a fire. Save preserved food for emergencies whenever possible; if you are badly injured or catch the flu, you won't be able to forage.
Your prime early raid target will be military surplus stores: they can have military rucksacks, MREs, clean water, first aid kits, and other useful things. Don't ever try to fight like that, just dash in, grab what you can, and book it. If you take Night Vision, it can be viable to try to sneak into cities at night, as zeds can only detect you when you're very close as long as you stay quiet.
Oh, and only start cooking fires with tiny bits of rubbish, or they'll produce copious clouds of smoke and kill you dead, at least in current versions.