I was supposed to post this over the weekend I was out of town, but finding internet access in our hometown (Isabela, Negros Occidental) proved to be an epic fail, and I’ve been running on very little sleep for the past four days, hence the delay in posting.
I’m resuming my backlog posts from last year, so here’s a look at one of the best Christmas presents I got last year: the PostSecret books I got from Peter, who drew me for the annual Flips Flipping Pages exchange gift: the first book, PostSecret and the latest release, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God (Woot! Thank you Peter!) both by the PostSecret creator Frank Warren.
PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project where people make their own postcards, write their secret on it, and mail it to Frank Warren, who publishes it on the site. The books, which number five volumes now, are select compilations of the postcards sent to PostSecret.
I’ve been a big fan of the PostSecret website for years now, and I visit the site from time to time to admire the artwork and check out what people have been writing. I’ve been salivating over the PostSecret books for years now, and I’m glad I finally have two of them!
Here’s a preview of some secrets from the two books:
As you can see, all sorts of secrets — big or small, strange, silly, poignant, and philosophical — are revealed by people from all over the globe.
I love the sincerity of PostSecret, as its anonymity takes down barriers of race, class, and gender, and shows us that deep down, we are all human, sharing happiness, sorrow, love, fear, paranoia, hope, and humor, even if they’re in different contexts. And aside from the thousands of unique art generated by the self-expression encouraged by the project, it gives the senders that relief of having unburdened themselves to the world, and the readers the comfort of knowing they are not alone in whatever they’re going through in life, or the inspiration they need to move on from a tough time.
***
My copies: PostSecret, hardcover with dust jacket; PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, hardcover
My ratings: both 5/5 stars
Books 228-229 for 2009
*cover image courtesy of sxc.hu
*PostSecret images property of PostSecret
love this. want these books!
something like this was used in a CSI episode.
The books are really pretty, printed full-color on heavygrade paper, and hardbound pa! :)
Really nice books to have in your collection. Those little secrets do give you a lot of peeks into human nature. Hmmm…will look for the website.
these books are really addicting! and the website too! lots of little secrets that are begging to be published!
I’ve seen the book in store locally, but I didn’t realize there was a website as well! Off to look into it a bit further…thanks for sharing!
@Jo- they’re real keepers!
@Aloi- I’ve been meaning to send in some secrets, hehe, who knows if they make it into the books one day?
@Gina- Yup, there’s a website, still updated weekly, I think!
I lovvve Postsecret.Thanks for sharing these!
:) Welcome Ash!
I was just wondering how can I post my secret?
Send them a postcard, Sooga