... there is a very large body of fan theory that gives evidence that pretty much every chapter contains at least one small bit of subtle clue for what's going to happen to their world and how Kvothe is going to be the cause of it, and why he's going to end up an innkeeper with no music and no magic. I find the clues and the evidence incredibly fascinating, and it suggests that the reason he didn't tell anything about the pirates, for example, is that nothing of importance to the end-of-the-world that's going to happen was involved in that part of the tale. But all the parts the Kvothe is telling, regardless of how mundane they might seem, are important to the overall understanding of what's going to happen.

Plus, like you said, the story is very engagingly written, and Kvothe is a great character.

If you're interested in reading up on some of the fan theories and such, look up the Rothfuss Re-read on Tor's blog site. Every single post is jammed with theories and ideas about the subtle clues being strewn about the story, and it's all very probable-sounding and consistent, though of course we won't know for sure until the third book. I've also heard that Rothfuss then plans to write a second trilogy taking the character forward from the present of the frame story, facing down and trying to fix what's wrong with the world, but I don't know that for sure.

For example, and this is the least subtle of the clues, did you figure out that the lady the not-a-king wants to marry, Meluan Lackless, is probably Kvothe's aunt, and that the proof for that is in a song Kvothe's father once sang that was mentioned in the first book?