I was totally fascinated by Moby Dick and was frustrated that it seemed so short. I hated it when I was 12 but at 34 it was a different case. It is the only book I ever read that truly made me feel the time and place and the action.
Many of my friends have remarked on this also. Sometimes someone has to live before being able to enjoy certain writings. I know someone who read "Through the looking Glass" as an adult and was amazed at the different perception of it.
Moby Dick is one of my all-time favorites, though the chapter on cetology seems to be a price to be paid, kind of like a root canal.
There is of course Local Flavor for me, being familiar with the area, so the identification takes some of the curse from the (at times) laborious style.