The first sentence counts

Of the novels and short stories I've read there were two cases where not only they were works of sheer literary genius, but also written with a humour that sold them to me with the very first sentence.

In the first case the short story Jupiter Five, my favourite by sir A. C. Clarke, partly due to the excellent and slightly unusual Czech translation.

Profesor Forster měl tak drobnou postavu, že pro něho museli vyrobit speciální kosmoskafandr. (Profesor Forster's stature was so small they had to make a special spacesuit for him.)

In the second case this was the (perhaps more widely known) novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

When a story starts with a sentence like this, you just know you're in for a treat :-)