There are different kinds of difficulty-to-read. I had the following experience multiple times with Crime and Punishment: I would pick it up and start reading,

There are different kinds of difficulty-to-read. I had the following experience multiple times with Crime and Punishment: I would pick it up and start reading, and think "wow, this is really amazing stuff", and then at some point I would put it down for a day or two and then somehow not want to pick it back up again. Not because it was hard to follow (it isn't), nor because it's badly written (it isn't), but because the world it puts you inside is a pretty unpleasant one. (I did eventually read the whole thing, of course, and I'm glad I did.)