I think you encounter this idea of effort adding value a lot in the arts. If a book (or film, album, etc.) is particularly long or "difficult", it can add somet

I think you encounter this idea of effort adding value a lot in the arts. If a book (or film, album, etc.) is particularly long or "difficult", it can add something to the experience and achievement of reading it. And correspondingly there is an inherent suspicion of anything that is just too readable or popular, the feeling being that anything so easily consumed must be of little value.