>>4
You still learn quite a bit by pushing through a dense philosophical book, even if you don’t understand what the author’s trying to get across it makes reading these books in the future a little easier. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination as the old cliche goes. It’s perfectly fine to go through a book and not really remember what the author is doing beyond a vague gist of what they’re trying to say.

>>1
Mind if I ask why your reading Hegel? Have you tried reading Hegel before? your a beginner you shouldn’t really start weigh Hegel and if your new to reading him you shouldn’t start with the Phenomenology but his Lectures on the Philosophy of History which provides you with nice intro to how Hegel sees world history and eases you into his dense writing style.

Anyway, if your looking for secondary sources I’d seriously recommend the Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit by Robert Stern. It’s a really good introduction that’s beginner friendly and written in an easy to follow clear fashion.