Yeah, Dresden's first book is just about unreadable. Most of my friends said, "It gets MUCH BETTER! Keep going!"
…and it does. It's quite enjoyable and has a pretty epic plot, and Harry Dresden's sexism and white knight stuff gets put into proper perspective and ridiculed for the unsubtle, backward, juvenile problems they are. Harry improves a little, but mainly the people surrounding him point out how ridiculous he's being, and prove Harry wrong on those fronts.
It gets good by the fifth book, and it's not like you're committing to David Eddings' extruded fantasy product, or stuck waiting for the next GRRM brick.