Help on reading Nick de Firmian's Modern Chess Openings 15?

So I am a noob, only ever played the occasional casual chess game as a kid without ever really learning any tactics or theory.  Now that I have decided to try to get into chess, I have been doing the lessons here on chess.com.  On the side, I decided to try to get some books to learn more general chess theory.  Based on some recommendations and glowing reviews that Nick de Firmian's MCO 15 was the "Chess Bible," I picked it up and I am absolutely baffled by it.  Pardon me if this is a total noob question, there someone that owns the book who can explain to me how in the world to read those diagrams? I understand what each individual move notation means, what I cannot understand is the relationship of the columns to the rows.  Can someone explain to me how to read and apply those diagrams?

On another note, does anyone know of any other good chess books that they would recommend to a beginner trying to get a grasp on openings and more general chess theory? Maybe one that is a bit more approachable for a beginner?

Just buy Paul van der Sterren's Fundamental Chess Openings (FCO) instead.  Plain language explanations of the "why" behind each move.  MCO was a wonderful resource back in the day but databases and opening books that actually explain openings have pretty much replaced it.

Hopefully this will help explain some along with this.  This is a beast of a book and more of a reference instead of teaching tool, especially for "normal" players.

I highly recommend Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan. It covers the basics about material, time as it pertains to openings, space and pawn structure.  For a book about basic openings, I suggest Discovering Chess Openings by John Emms. Chapters 1-3 focuses on principles of opening moves. He does discuss some specific openings and popular variations in chapters 4-6. Please be aware there are some mistakes in the examples in DCO, but the book content is excellent for beginners.

You are a beginner

Forget MCO for maybe 3-4 years. Buy Chess Master vs Amateur. And read it through and through. When done ... Read it again. Thereafter get Road to Chess Mastery and repeat the process.

DON'T even touch MCO with a barge pole.

If its anything like my MCO 13 by him it is most likely filled with cooks, errors, misspellings and entire tree columns missing that have been referenced.

Chess Master vs Amateur have an older edition best chess book I bought because there is a lot there and it is explained in clear simple way. Chapter 14 has to be one of the best examples of a game presented and explained that I have ever read.

Those sound like good suggestions, I will look into those suggestions.  I've looked up all the books you've mentioned here and they look like they will be much better places to start. I'm gonna go pick up a few of them in the next few days.  Thanks everyone!

" Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan." I second that.

Burn all opening books.

Instead study recent annotated grandmaster games.

Very good for beginners are

"Chess Fundamentals" - Capablanca

"Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" - Fischer

"My Great Predecessors" - Kasparov

While agreeing with the suggestion about beginners working with game collections rather than opening works, Kasparov's five volume My Great Predecessors, fine as it is, is perhaps intimidating for a beginner. Go with Nunn & Burgess Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games. or Tartakower and du Mont's 500 Master Games of Chess. 

Bobby Fischer did not write "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," it was written by others and he allowed them to use his name.

How I can find my opening was played on chess.com?

     Tarrasch's "The Game of Chess" is intended for beginners. It starts with the simplest things and works up to more complicated concepts. He was the first to systematically explain "positional principles". Be sure to get the algebraic edition.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Modern Chess Strategy by Irving Chernev is worth a mention. The games were selected as examples of various themes (passed pawn, two bishops, knight outpost, etc.). Some of them may be a little involved but the annotation is good. There are also the occasional tidbits about the players themselves. I've enjoyed the book several times and expect to enjoy it several more.

My Great Predecessors are for at least 2000 elo players.

Thank you for all your answers.
After reading them I have 11 directions.
Can you agree on one/ two, please:

1. Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan
2. Discovering Chess Openings by John Emms
3. Chess Master vs Amateur
4. Road to Chess Mastery
5. Annotated grandmaster games:
   "Chess Fundamentals" - Capablanca
   "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" - Fischer
   "My Great Predecessors" - Kasparov
6. Nunn & Burgess Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games
7. Tartakower and du Mont's 500 Master Games of Chess
8. Tarrasch's "The Game of Chess"
9. Lasker’s Manual of Chess
10. Paul van der Sterren's Fundamental Chess Openings (FCO)
11. Nick de Firmian's MCO 15