Trying to find a good book is different than trying to find an interesting movie to watch. There are no trailers with musical scores and tight shots to entice you — just summaries, which usually never do the book justice. Luckily, a new startup is changing the way we talk about books, and its name is a direct literary reference from Moby Dick.
Call Me Ishmael, a Kickstarter created by Logan Smalley and Steph Kent, mixes elements of classic literature and technology with modernity through the use of a modernized rotary-style phone and a typewriter.
The premise is for bibliophiles to call and leave a voice message about their favorite book. This message then gets saved in the phone’s memory, where prospective readers can dial a number and listen as people from around the world describe their favorite books.
The aim is to have these phones in libraries and bookstores across the country, so readers can listen and discover — and celebrate — these books, new and old. What’s even better is that each day, bookstore owners and librarians can change the messages corresponding to each number on the phone so that the messages have as much variety as the books on their shelves.
Call Me Ishmael is special in comparison to a regular online review because you are able to get a human element that is oftentimes unachievable in the form of a comment — and that is passion. Being able to hear someone passionately explain to you why “Harry Potter,” for example, is their favorite book or how it changed their life can help you discover books in a way that can truly speak to your soul.
And let’s be frank; people aren’t reading as much as they should. I don’t mean that in an academic “the-kids-are-forgetting-how-to-read-and-comprehend” kind of way but more so in a way that they’re restricting the opportunity for exploration in an entirely different world.
The beauty of reading is not simply being able to understand complicated metaphors and figure out what the author was thinking but rather being thrown into a different culture and time period and still be able to make sense of it all.
You can learn more by visiting the Kickstarter page, or even give Ishmael a call at 774-325-0503 to talk about your favorite book.
