One of the kids in my office is reading Moby-Dick for the first time. He comes in and wants to talk about it but he's only in the early chapters. The other day he wanted to talk about the chapter where Melville compares the sizes of whales to the sizes of books -- the "folio" chapter. I think it confused him; he's a smart guy so I am taking it seriously that this chapter gives him pause. He was concerned that the book size terms would come up later in the book and be some kind of key to understanding the point of the book. Like the end of the book will hinge on a pun on "duodecimo."

But also, he's still at the point of deciding whether to skip the technical digressions and just read the adventure story. I feel that the digressions are important, and that if you're reading this as an "important" book or one that holds some key to America, the digressions are the book. I have stated this to him but also made some vague reference to guides on "the internet" that will tell him which chapters to skip if he just wants the straight adventure story. I have my Moby-Dick comic also but I think this would insult him. To me, the story itself is fun and all but the book is more interesting. Does that make sense?