Les Misérables question

I also loved Les Miserables, it's easily one of my favourite books. I'm about three quaters of the way through The Hunchback of Notre Dame and don't have the same respect for it as Les Mis. The start is painfully slow and Hugo does a lot of those side stories about how Paris looks or the life of gypsies etc. I'm listening to it on a audiobook of Librivox.org, which makes some of those hard to read classics a bit easier to get through. Now I'm towards the end of the book I'm really getting into it but the beginning was a huge struggle.

@One the slow start was something I was really quite afraid of with Hunchback, the thing that puts me off most about classics (or at least the ones I've read) besides the language used were the slow starts, overly quick introduction of characters and the overly complicated language. What I need to increase my confidence with the Classics are ones that grab me right from the very first page. This is something I wasn't expecting when I opened Les Miserables as due to the sheer size of it I was expecting it to slowly amble to the action and intrigue but I was most definitely pleasantly surprised I was wrong about. The first paragraph had me completely hooked then and there.
I read the first few pages of Hunchback and found them actually a bit of a struggle and the writing style seemed more convoluted than in Les Mis?

I found these so books completely different in style that, other than the frequent historical asides, I wouldn't have thought them the same author.

I enjoy Quasimodo's epoch more than Valjean's myself.

@Kirk The great difference in style is something I've been 'warned' about a lot and is definitely one of my main concerns. I loved the writing and storytelling style of Les Miserables, it was one that drew me in and wouldn't let go.
As for ValJean VS Quasi I can't comment fairly having not read Hunchback but I completely fell in love with ValJeans story and character and I feel really quite scared that that's never going to be topped.

They are just as different as you can't compare them... I'm not alright with skipping entire chapters, they all have their reason to be, so I can tell you to read and enjoy every word.
I love them both pretty much, but slightly prefer Les miserables... Valjean is kind of a hero to me ^__^