Bibliophiles everywhere can recognize “Call me Ishmael” as one of the most famous first sentences in literature. But a new project is taking that opening line from “Moby-Dick” and giving it a modern twist.
The website, Call Me Ishmael, launched two weeks ago with simple instructions: Call a number and leave a voicemail about a book you’ve loved and a story you’ve lived. Later, that anonymous voicemail will be transcribed and made into a short video for everyone to see.
Logan Smalley, the man behind the project, was inspired by his love of storytelling and obsession with first sentences to start the website.
“The pun dawned on me,” said Smalley, who is doing this while moonlighting from his TED-Ed director job. “It revealed a really powerful story capturing mechanism... If someone could call Ishmael, what would they say?”
As a bibliophile on college sabbatical myself, just seeing the business-card-like logo with the name and number was enough to pull me away from studying my dense textbook to listen to the stories.
This site isn’t supposed to replace other book sites like Goodreads for simple synopses or reviews. It’s meant to show how books are simply not “squiggles on a page,” but they give and take meaning from life.
“The stories are based on these deep relationships with books and also profound moments in life,” Smalley said. “Incredibly joyful stories, incredibly tragic stories, secrets, confessions, obsessions— you name it.”
My favorite video so far, a man talking about “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss, demonstrates what Call Me Ishmael is meant to be. He described his childhood growing up in the 1960s, and he said the book explained racism and segregation better than any of his Sunday school teachers ever could.
In another video, a man recounts his interaction with a dictionary around the time his heart was broken for the first time. He told of how he was disappointed with the definition with the word “heartache.”
Call Me Ishmael has the same kind of appeal other anonymous sites, like PostSecret or Whisper, have. When people know they won’t be identified, they’re more likely to tell the truth. And Smalley said that’s been his favorite thing about listening to the dozens of voicemails he’s been getting each day.
“You hear someone in complete sincerity telling you a very personal story about a very personal relationship with a book,” he said. “And whether it’s happy or sad or surprising or hilarious, it’s such a special exchange.”
Looking forward, Smalley said he hopes to be able to post as many of the special voicemails as he can, and later on, add an archive of audio without transcription or perhaps open it up for people to help curate.
He also said he hopes the site will become a part of the reading experience, that once someone finishes a book, they’ll call.
But for now, all you bibliophiles out there, good luck narrowing down all your favorites to talk about.
