as always a balsam for the soul. ( )

I like the idea of PostSecret and putting the secrets in a book is a nice way of collecting them all together. I do think the publishers went for quantity over quality though (although I realize these are people's secrets and what kind of qualities would I be looking for anyway? but I did find some of them repetitive)-- I would not necessarily have chosen every single one in here for print. ( )

I remember feeling anxious while reading this book. I felt like I was doing something wrong.

It was fun getting a personal peek at people even though it shocked the heck out of me.

ETA: years later.... I am done with this book/project. I was even following the blog that posted Sunday Secrets. I don't want to know about peoples private hygiene nastiness. You can't un-see some of that. ( )

PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren (2005)

Received this as a birthday gift from a friend. Makes for a unique coffee table book. An interesting social experiment delving into modern-day society's hidden psyche... however dark that may be. Just make sure the coffee table you place it is age appropriate. ( )

No one wants to drown in her sorrows or enjoy others' torments, but there is a wonderous, small lifting of loneliness when we discover that perfect strangers share our deceptively unique fears and hidden truths. POST SECRET stings you with the little messages scattered throughout its pages of anonymous postcards sent to Frank Warren, the man who put together this book.

I'm obviously not referring to the postcard from a man stating he survived 9/11 and never told his family or friends. Nor am I thinking of the Starbucks employee who gives decaf coffee to the customers who tick him off.

The postcards that resonate with many readers are the heart-breaking pleas, rants against the self or the endearingly honest confessions of childhood memories they cannot let go of easily.

The simplest ones, accompanied with beautifully constructed drawings or collages, hit home the hardest. One POST SECRET contributor, for instance, sent in a picture of her dog, along with the words, "I'm afraid no one will ever love me as much as my dog does."

POST SECRET reminds us that sometimes we can see ourselves in strangers more than we can in our friends or families. It's a scary thought, but it's also a strangely comforting one. ( )

Post Secret is art, but at its heart it is healing.

Somewhere within the secrets you're forced to face yourself, you're forced to realize different aspects of your own life and psyche and come to terms with them. That's what Post Secret is about, to me, acknowledgment.

I just wish I had the courage to send in my own. ( )

Secrets are fun to read about. There is something cathartic about not only reading someone else's secret, but connecting with that secret. Maybe you'll read one of your secrets. ( )

The project that captured a nation’s imagination.

The instructions were simple, but the results were extraordinary.

You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project.

Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything — as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative.
It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places — asking people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to him, anonymously.

The response was overwhelming. The secrets were both provocative and profound, and the cards themselves were works of art — carefully and creatively constructed by hand. Addictively compelling, the cards reveal our deepest fears, desires, regrets, and obsessions. Frank calls them “graphic haiku,” beautiful, elegant, and small in structure but powerfully emotional.

As Frank began posting the cards on his website, PostSecret took on a life of its own, becoming much more than a simple art project. It has grown into a global phenomenon, exposing our individual aspirations, fantasies, and frailties — our common humanity.

Every day dozens of postcards still make their way to Frank, with postmarks from around the world, touching on every aspect of human experience. This extraordinary collection brings together the most powerful, personal, and beautifully intimate secrets Frank Warren has received — and brilliantly illuminates that human emotions can be unique and universal at the same time.

MY BOOK REVIEW:

I must confess, that I picked up this book solely on its cover. I had no idea what I was getting into until I sat down and started to read.
The experience is both intense and at times, horrifying. I did laugh at some of the entries and thought OMG at others. The whole concept of this book is brilliant and unique, imaginative and very eye-opening. The idea that so many different people from around the world sent anonymous postcards revealing their deepest and sometimes darkest secrets is amazing and unbelievable.

When reading the postcards, you begin to realize that we live in a complicated and vast world filled with so much regret and pain, that you wonder the current priorities of our race. Somewhere along the way, society got lost in discovering the value of life. This book’s postcards show a lot of pain in many, some were silly and fun but the reality of others hits hard to home.

The book format is hardcover, with an extraordinary book jacket. It’s stamped and addressed like a post card. There’s 276 pages of art, humor and an interesting insight into so many lives. Warren is still receiving more postcards, and I imagine he always will. There’s a sequel to this book, I believe, filled with an equal number of postcard secrets.

This is an excellent coffee table book that would provide a lot of discussion. It’s full of reality and quality. I highly recommend it. ( )

A very interesting book. Beautiful pictures of received postcards, that tell volumes of joy, but mostly sorrow or pain. Secrets seem to hurt a lot or cause much stress to those who keep them. At least that's what I read from the pictures. ( )

I am an intensely private person who has devoted much of my adult life to letting go of the fears, the guilt, the insecurities and the "secretiveness" that defined the first thirty of my sixty-two years on the Planet. I'm not easily shocked, or surprised, by any aspect of the human condition. That having been said, I was pleased to find that the raw, naked and often painful introspection found on the (amazing!) pages of this book left me with a sense of understanding, insight and hmmmm, camaraderie? The smiles, chuckles and acquiescing :nods: were there as well. All-in-all, I found Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives to be . . extraordinary!

[b:PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives|87640|PostSecret Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives|Frank Warren|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171104579s/87640.jpg|84604] ( )

this was an okay book. i read the entire thing while sitting in the barnes and noble while doing some community service for the honor society. ( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )

I don't really know what to make of this book. Some of the secrets are funny, some a little distributing and some really sad.
But it does give an insight to some of the biggest secrets we keep from those around us.
( )