I had to read Cien Anos de Soledad for Spanish class, and was excited when the English translation (One Hundred Years of Solitude, done quite well) came out a couple of years later.
The first paragraph (in Spanish or English) is as good as A Farewell to Arms, and if it doesn't hook you into a book you'll enjoy, you probably don't read or appreciate much good literature (not that there's anything wrong with that -- I like Michael Connelly and Daniel Silva, too)...
God smiled on this great writer and old fool. Marquez has lived long enough to play the tethered, old Buendía himself.