A Review of 'Snail Mail My Email' by Ivan Cash

"Feeling nostalgic for the almost forgotten written letter, author and former ad man Ivan Cash fell upon a simple idea: he invited anyone in the world to send him an email and he's write it out in a letter and mail it, for free.  Participants could even request a doodle or to seal it with a kiss.

What started out as a personal art project exploded into a worldwide event.  As requests poured in, Cash enlisted an international army of volunteers who helped create more than 10,000 letters sent all over the globe.

An addictive and artful window into everyday lives, Snail Mail My Email is a collection of the most memorable letters and moments from the project, and a reminder of the power of personal connection in a digital world."

If you're familiar with the Post Secret project, this is something very similar.  While Post Secret is an on-going project asking people to mail in their secrets on postcards, the Snail Mail my Email project lasted only a month and it encourages people to send out letters as opposed to emails when it comes to their special notes.  The extra incentive: email your notes and this large group of volunteers will write them down, draw some pictures, and send them all over the world, all to show how important and meaningful snail mail is.

I liked that the letters were so different from each other.  Yes, there were a lot of love letters, but some of them were pretty quirky, including what I'm sure are inside jokes between the writer and the recipient.  These inside jokes made the letters funny to read.  My favorite letter is one from a grandma to her grandchild saying, "You should write to me every once in a while, jackass."  Maybe my maturity level is on the lower end, but I just cracked up upon reading it because there was a drawing of a donkey next to it and the wording was bold.  What an interesting grandma!  I just hope that I never receive a letter from her...

This is a very quick read-- it'll take a couple hours to get through because the letters are short, but you'll stay for the pictures and the sentiments left on the paper.

I liked this book, but somehow, it was less satisfying than reading Post Secret.  Maybe it's because the letters weren't anonymous and that made them feel a little less genuine.  With no name, you can say what you please and forego your filter, to a certain degree.  A degree more than with Snail Mail My Email.

I give 'Snail Mail My Email':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude