There are books I like that are difficult to plow through. Mervyn Peake. Some of Gene Wolfe. Heck, Ayn Rand is no picnic sometimes either. But when the first thing that somebody notices about a book is that the guy never uses periods, or capital letters, or how "dense" or "complex" the work is, I get alarm bells.

You can learn a lot from reading reviews. Often more about the reviewer than the work of art. The "Emperor's Clothes Are Beautiful" type of critic stands out like a sore thumb. My kids and I get a kick out of reading the critical comments at museums of modern art.

For a good time, plow through the Wikipedia article on Pynchon. If you aren't on oxygen by the time you get done, you're doing better than I am. There are more names dropped here than at four years of Hollywood parties. That doesn't even include the number of concepts and theories dropped.