I'm a journalist. I write for Harper's and Rolling Stone. I also teach at New York University, where I edit a sort of blog/online magazine about religion and media called The Revealer. There, I publish work by journalists, scholars, students, and me -- whatever I have to say on the subject. I'm co-founder of Killing The Buddha, an online magazine at which I'm now just an "editor at large" -- which means I can publish anything I want on the subject. Buddha-killing, that is. It's not what it sounds like.
But I'm also a reader, a nerd, a bookworm, a bibliophile, a text fetishist, a book groper. And this, "Call Me Ishmael," is where I get to indulge my obsession. And, if I'm lucky, spark some conversations with those likewise afflicted.
My title might seem grandiose, but remember what happens to Ishmael in Moby-Dick. He gets overwhelmed by genius -- Queequeg's, Ahab's, the whale's.
Same principle here.
