It's certainly a long book but you don't have to treat it like a academic paper to enjoy reading it. It's a fun read, for real! Well actually it's kind of depressing but moment to moment it's fun.
Maybe I'd just had enough.
What hooked me on GR was the similarity to Richard Farina's book, which is not a slog at all and one of my favorites that I'd read when younger. When I found this was probably intentional, it was a very cool thing to find out.
His first novel (V.) is similar in prose though and was so enjoyable for me at a young age I have been planning to read it again.
The Crying of Lot 49 is the foil—short, with a meaningless story only good for the experience reading it.
DFW's Kenyan commencement speech is what got me interested in his writing. I'd like to go back and finish Infinite Jest at some point, but I don't see it happening any time soon.