Can't say I'm familiar but I did look him up. I don't really mind it. It was just something hammered home in every English and writing class I ever took.
I only read his Gödel, Escher, Bach (often referred simply as GEB). His style can be annoying, conjunctions are one of the more apparent traits. [And,] if GEB intrigued you, leaf through but don't buy into the hype: Hofstadter's true accomplishment is inspiring countless people to talk about aspects of GEB with half the vocab and tenth of pretentiousness.
I'll give it a look when I'm done this week, but everyone's difficult book is different. Sapiens didn't take me six hours, the stupid-long 140 pages of Piketty's preface took me a month followed by not giving enough of a shit to finish the book.But I never managed to get through "The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann.