John, though I most certainly do not recommend doing so, you can skip a lot of chapters without missing out on any plot developments. These chapters are easy to recognize, since they are devoted to learned and historical or philosophical disquisitions about whaling and whale boats. You can skip them and then pick up with the "story" in the next chapter.
This discussion has made me eager to reread the book. It really is amazingly great. If you read it, don't skip all the non-plot chapters. For example, the chapter called something like "On The Whiteness of the Whale" is not to be missed -- I know you are skeptical about non-rhyming poetry, but if prose can be great poetry, this is where it happens.
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