Some questions to start discussion:
Which sections were interesting? The overview of how JS came to be and it's influences were rather informative to why things are the way they are. Hoisting was also an interesting topic because I never really thought about it in Ruby. IIFEs made a lot of sense but I could easily see things getting complicated with all of the {} blocks in there. Closures are probably the most interesting. When I first read about them, I was rather confused. Steve's explanation of comparing them to procs and blocks in Ruby have started to make a lot more sense but I still need to spend more time on it.
Which sections did you totally skim? So I didn't totally skim it but the last chapter dragged. It felt way over my head as far as trying to get a handle on the basics of the language and then going pretty deep in to the nuances was a struggle.
Do you think the reading was valuable? Yes, but that last chapter was just too much.
Which topics were notably confusing? All of the last chapter assigned. I think it will be very valuable to go back and read it in another week or two when I have better context.