Literature's Beginnings [Excerpt] of "The Hobbit" by JJR Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats-- the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill-- The hill, as all the people for many miles round called it-- and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.
[This excerpt, for my 'Literature Beginnings' series, is from first paragraph from the first chapter of The Hobbit. This story is my utmost favorite story of Tolkien's works. Additionally, the beginning is not just a classic, it is the epitome of literature beginnings (as I discussed in the previous post on literature beginnings) for two reasons, 1) it is the most memorable do to the emotional, sentimental, cozyiness that Tolkien puts into this passage. 2) Out of all the beginnings passages of his writings,  none have such a connection and set-up as this passage. Within this one paragraph, readers are introduced to hobbits, not just to one, Bilbo, but also to practically all of the hobbits, as well as their architecture and culture. From the descriptions alone (of this paragraph and the rest of the book, mostly the chapter), we now know the setting of Hobbiton for the book "The Hobbit" but as well as "The Fellowship of the Ring" and at *SPOILER* the very end of "The Return of the King."
What I mean by culture, is that with the descriptions of The Hill, Bilbo's underground manor, we can see what hobbits find important, what they value. In terms of comfort, hobbits prefer underground instead of above ground (for the most part), to be rounded instead of boxy, and based on what was considered as "the best rooms" were ones with windows that faced a growing living garden. From this we can assume (both from this and other statements made further in the chapter) that hobbits find more value in growing things (as well as food, drink, and smoking pipe-weed) than adventure, coin, or anything that of the "big-folk." The first line (the first two sentences) alone, is my all-together favorite line of all literature. That one line states the entire paragraph, the rest of the paragraph is just an adverbial non-defining relative clause of that one line (simply, an elaboration), if you will.