We All Love Secrets!!
|
|
Frank Warren started something very cool when he first put this website together and sharing it through these books gives us a little something to carry around. If you are looking for the perfect gift for the teen in your life - this will do it! Frank Warren is coming to my area this month and I'm dying to meet him and hear all about what he has created here! If you love secrets - you will love his Post Secret collections!!
|
|
|
Heart-Wrenching Glimpses of Excruciating Emotional Pain with Some Humor
|
Have you ever told a stranger something that no one else knows about you? I often think that's the main purpose of sitting on long airplane flights: Confiding in strangers makes secret burdens emotionally lighter.
Frank Warren obviously understands that point and provides a needed outlet for those who can't even tell a stranger . . . but feel comfortable sending in a postcard with their secret on it. I'm sure thousands of people are walking a little lighter.
Much like watching a film of a disaster, you'll be counting your blessings as you review these often deeply painful admissions. In that way, your own secrets won't seem so heavy. I suspect that those with unshared secrets can benefit from both sharing and reading what others have shared. Many thanks to Frank Warren for coming up with this unique form of self-therapy.
It would be fascinating to ask people in a few years to send in another postcard to describe how sending the original one affected their lives.
One of the last postcards in the book explores that point: "i used to write my secrets on postcards that were never posted now i tell them to real people that know and care about me thanks, postsecret and goodbye"
My main caution is that I'm not sure how someone who is severely depressed and suicidal might react to this book. Some of the postcards reflect that condition, and someone inclined that way might find encouragement in reading what others have said.
From the point of view of wanting to understand others better, I was glad to learn about some secrets people hide that I wasn't aware of. I'll be more careful in the future about what I say on those subjects.
As I read the postcards, I was reminded of a seminar I attended two years ago where I met a man who told me his family had never celebrated his birthday and no one had hugged him in almost 20 years. Naturally, everyone took turns hugging him, and we held an impromptu birthday celebration. He looked like a new man.
I pray that those who sent in these postcards will enjoy years of unexpected hugs.
It's not all sadness. Some of the secrets are meant to be humorous. Others aren't all that serious . . . but will touch your heart nevertheless.
|
|
|
Tell me a secret!
|
Until I read this book, I only knew PostSecret from Frank Warren's blog which is on my weekly must-read list. I had resisted buying the previous books in the series because so often what's intriguing a few at a time becomes cloying when presented in a book.
This was not the case with A LIFETIME OF SECRETS: A POSTSECRET BOOK. I couldn't put it down until I'd read it through, and it left me feeling introspective and deeply connected.
For those not familiar with PostSecret, it began as a community art project in which Frank Warren ("America's most trusted stranger") invited people to send in secrets on decorated postcards. Every week he posts twenty of these anonymous postcards on his blog, PostSecret.com; a collection has traveled internationally as an art exhibit; and this is the fourth book of collected secrets.
So many heart-rending postcards! People share their alienation, anger, fear, desire, and even pride. Why do they send their secrets to Frank? Would you? Have you? I haven't (and won't), but something about the secrets has huge sympathetic appeal. There's nothing new in human nature and we all carry the seeds of all these secrets. Some resonate in us more than others, but can you really say that any of the feelings expressed are completely alien?
A LIFETIME OF SECRETS is the fourth book in the series. It's arranged roughly by the age of the secret-sharer, and this theme is certainly effective; you can, however, open it to any page and count on feeling a sense of kinship with the writer. I hope to keep this book for a while and will probably turn its pages many times. It's inevitable that some day I'll hear a friend mention something and I'll say, there's this book I HAVE to share with you; and they'll share it with someone else and I'll never see it again. And that's as it should be. (My secret: I hardly ever return books people lend me!)
|
|
|
What's Your Secret?
|
|
This book is filled with the dark unspoken, underbellies of fellow human beings; it will prod you to consider your own secrets and perhaps, to be more human. For anyone who seeks solace in the company of others fortune or misery, or for those of you who'd sneak a peek under the diary's cover if given the chance -- this one as well as the other three Post Secret books by Frank Warren are for you. I also highly recommend the book Understanding: Train of Thought.
|
|
|
A Lifetime of Secrets
|
Je n'ai pas eu l'occasion de lire les trois livres précédents, mais je peux dire que le projet est magnifique en soit et ce livre-ci également. Chaque secrets nous ramène à une portion de la vie de tel ou tel individu et nous rappelle que même à 8 ans on a des secrets. Plus on lit le livre, plus on se sent triste, compréhensif, heureux, joyeux (au point d'éclater en fou rire). Et oui, même des fous rires, pas parce qu'on se moque des gens, mais bien parce qu'on finit toujours par retrouver une part de nous à travers ce tourbillons de vies humaines et de secrets. Bref, un livre original qui peut nous émouvoir en quelques secondes.
Simple petit bémol, la qualité des images est souvent très bonne cependant certaines d'entres elles sont assez flous, mais il faut comprendre l'effet de l'agrandissement des cartes postales, alors disons que je passe là -dessus puisque beaucoup de ces images livrent déjà un effet spectaculaire en étant accompagné du secret de chaque personne.
Donc, ce n'est pas un secret, mais le livre est bien réalisé et les cartes postales sont souvent sublimes et j'ai adoré le concept depuis le tout début. Quant à dire s'il surpasse les trois premiers volumes, je ne sais pas, mais je me dis qu'après quatre tomes de secrets j'en redemenderais encore malgré tout, puisque l'émotion qu'on ressent à partager le secret d'un inconnu nous étonne et est différente à chaque nouvelles cartes postales.
Bonne lecture ou peut-être même écriture d'un secret si le coeur vous en dit.
|
|
|
