In lieu of a Moby-Dick live chat today (they present logistical hurdles, and I also like to change up the style now and then), I'm really going to say just a little bit, and then turn it over to you to chat it up, book-style, in the comments.

Chapters 11-20 basically take us through the process of Quee and Ishy (I'm just kidding; I promise I won't keep doing that) finding their way to the Pequod. Some fairly significant things happen here: we are introduced, indirectly, to the foreboding descriptions of Captain Ahab ("Nice guy! Whale ate his leg! Just as soon kill you as look at you! Bon voyage!") and to the powers of Queequeg, who fairly clearly knows his way around a harpoon, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. We learn that Ishy is not going to make very much money for this trip as a grunt, while Quee is going to do pretty well for himself as a terrifying harpoon man.

But we're also getting a fairly significant discussion of faith, largely from Ishmael, who sees himself as very open-minded, but who says things like (I am paraphrasing), "I pride myself on being very respectful of the ridiculous things people do in other religions." (He was unfortunately not respectful enough to tell the difference between Queequeg's religious ritual and a medical emergency.) There's also a lot of discussion of Quakers, though not really from a religious perspective — this is more about cultural Quakerism, in many ways, like the plain dress and the way they talk. I'm very curious about how the religious back and forth — including passing off Queequeg as a baptized Christian — is going to play out later.

How is the book hitting you so far? What are you most interested in? Most surprised by? Most curious about going forward? What are your concerns?

The ball is in your court this week to guide the discussion, so have at it!