Post Secret (utgåvan 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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )