Reading: PostSecret

(March 29, 2011)

UPDATE: I just got A PostSecret Book: A Lifetime of Secrets from the library tonight and read it. Inside of the book, I found a secret that someone left on a folded up sheet paper between the pages. I left it in there for the next person to find.

One of the blogs I read each week is PostSecret.com. If you haven't heard of it, "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard." It's a really interesting blog so if you haven't seen it before it's definitely worth checking out.

It's such a successful blog that it's spawned several books, three of which I picked up from the library: My Secret: A PostSecret Book, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, and The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book. They aren't really meant to be read like novels, they're more "coffee table books" to have as coversation starters or to flip through every now and again. Of course since I got them from the library though I didn't have the luxury of leaving them around the house for ages, so I read each from cover to cover.

     

The secrets range from being funny to sad to insightful and everything in between. Some of the cards are hand drawn, while others are printed out. I'm constantly impressed by how creative people are and how willing they are to share their secrets with strangers (even anonymously).

I think the whole idea behind the project is really intriguing. It's fascinating to get a look into other people's heads. PostSecret is like a giant sneak peek into the brains of a thousand other people. Reading them can be cathartic - knowing you're not alone in your foibles/depression/hypocrisy/happiness/love - and some secrets are thought provoking as they challenge your perceptions of other people.

You won't really find much in the books that you can't find at the PostSecret blog. The books are collections of secrets that Frank Warren has received, although each book does have a short story or two that are interesting to read. They're extremely quick reads  if you do read them from front to back (I read all three books one evening before bed), but that doesn't take away from the overall message of the project or each secret. If you like the PostSecret blog and you're inclined to read more secrets, the books are definitely worth checking out at least once.