The Postsecret Project began in 2005 and is an ongoing community art project (according to Wikipedia) founded by Frank Warren. Through the website, users are invited to anonymously submit a secret on a homemade postcard which may then be chosen and featured on the website update every week, known as Sunday Secrets. The project was featured in an All American Rejects music video, there was a nod towards it in a CSI: NY episode, as well as obvious repercussions in real life, namely exhibitions featuring the postcards travelling all across the U.S., accompanied by Frank Warren speaking at college campuses around the country. Along with those, Frank Warren has also published several books' worth of Secrets, the first being "Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives".

Secrets range from the mundane ("I can't stand my college roommate") to the sad ("I have never been anyone's first choice") and the shocking ("I was molested") to the relatable ("I drool...a lot"). There are various levels of creativity involved in the making of the secrets, and likewise, there is variety in the way the secrets are presented - some are blown up to a full page, some share pages with other secrets. The book is hardback, and is in a format similar to that of a child's flipbook. This suits the experience of reading the secrets, as it reads naturally whether you sit down and take in the whole book at once, or read it slowly, ruminating on a secret a day, for example. Unlike "MySecret", the second PostSecret book, there are no quotes interspersed throughout, which improves the flow of the book, but may be missed by others.

For a gift, this is a unique one that almost everyone can enjoy, especially teenagers and those who suffer from social isolation in any form, as almost every secret has something relatable about it that resonates within the reader - whether a funny secret about farting in public or a darker secret about considering suicide. Of course, this will also go down well with anthropology students and pure voyeurs too.

Postsecret has also received criticism in the past, some of which I believe is well-founded. For many years the Postsecret blog failed to archive past updates, almost forcing fans to buy the books, but there is now a fan-run Postsecret archival project. For one, the author does not produce any new material but simply collects and rearranges the works of others, who, because of their anonymity, cannot be credited or paid for their contribution. Personally, I believe that Frank Warren should donate the proceeds of these books to charity, but alas, this is not a perfect world. Whether take the cynical view of it or not, the books are at least worth a read, but perhaps not something you'd return to again and again to relive the glory of.

Whatever your opinion of the Postsecret Project, this book is a sliver of humanity in its rawest form - sometimes beautiful, sometimes sad, sometimes gross, but always striving upwards. I hope that who submitted secrets, now living in a "post-secret" state (if you will), that they are doing well.