Review: Snail Mail My Email

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a publisher to review a new book that was written to reignite the lost art of letter writing, called Snail Mail My Email! I jumped on the opportunity since, as many of you know, I am a huge advocate of heartfelt mail and have written loads and loads of posts rambling on about it (link). A few short days later I was sent an advance copy and was even more excited about the project when I got to see it in printed form:

The premise is quite simple. Ivan Cash, a San Francisco artist and ex-advertising exec, decided to set up a website inviting anyone to electronically send him a memorable email they've received that he would write out by hand and and mail it back (usually with some sort of artistic embellishment, for free. He then compiled the most heartfelt and entertaining letters in the book for your enjoyment. 

The project was a hit and over 10,000 people sent emails to Ivan to receive in artistically interpreted and heartfelt physical form.  Ivan realized he could  no longer do this on his own and over 200 volunteers helped send out masses of amazing post.  The letters ended up spanning the globe and reaching more people than he ever thought was possible!

Now onto the good stuff - the book and the letters! As I mentioned earlier, I was already pretty thrilled and excited about trying to bring back the wonderful thoughtfulness of handwritten letters, but the finished product certainly did not disappoint. I loved flipping through the hundreds of glossy colourful pages and absorbing all of the different cute, silly, and romantic messages.  I sort of felt like a post mistress reading other people's incoming postcards (or at least that's how I imagine matronly old post mistresses) and snooping at such unique and creative letter creations. Here's a peek at just a few I was particularly impressed with:

It is truly an inspiration to bring back the post (and pen pals while we're at it) and remember to take time to share thoughts on paper.  It gave me lots of ideas for jazzing up my own letter writing as well which is wonderful for a crafty gal like myself and is an excellent source of motivation for getting those letters in the mail! Hooray!

I really feel that Snail Mail My Email is a fantastically artistic and positive spin on the Post Secret books (link) that gives you all the joys of appreciating the written word in mail without any of the negativity associated (to me at least) with secret keeping.  It's so sweet to see what messages people would rather have received in physical form and really makes you think about pulling out some stationary and taking a moment to make a message more memorable. Hooray for post!

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants a peek into the softer side of humanity to flip through, admire, and read.  Heck, you could even order the book online from Amazon and start your own trend of lovely mail when it arrives at your door too (link)!  

As icing on the preverbal cake, there was an adorable little @ symbol snail logo they created for the book and feel like he sums up the premise (and a cute and appealing way) so perfectly:

Now if only he had a little smile....

Much better. There we go Ivan - next time you take on this project ad a little gimpy smile to your logo snail and you'll be golden!