So last night I went to see Frank Warren from PostSecret at a Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn.  As I previously mentioned, the new book A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book was released on Tuesday, and so he gave a brief presentation and then was signing books.  It really wasn’t what I expected.

First, I got there about an hour early.  I killed fifteen minutes before going downstairs to where they were holding the session.  They had around 60 chairs set-up, and fifty of them were already filled.  I grabbed a seat in the back row directly facing the backdrop.  What was the backdrop you ask?  Frank Warren gave his presentation about the secrets of society below the golden hued sign for the Cooking section.  It was pretty ironic from my point of view.  You’ll have to trust me, because I forgot my camera in my truck (which I totally regret doing).  As I sat there more people continued to come… but it was so quiet… it was almost as if everyone was there for a mass.  I found it truly ironic the level of societal breeding in everyone when placed in a cavernous room full of books.

At this particular event, Frank was giving away an unbound galley of the book.  So because of the crowd, the organizer handed out little red raffle tickets to everyone to save time at the end.  My ticket was #839745.  Then they started doing the post-it notes if you wanted your book personalized.  I hadn’t grabbed a book yet, since I wanted a seat so I just figured I would do that at the end.  I already knew I was getting two books, so it wasn’t going to be a big deal.

So he came out and gave a presentation that lasted about 45 minutes.  To be honest, I greatly enjoyed the presentation he gave.  Granted, halfway through I felt myself baking and nearly passing out from the additional heat of all the bodies that were now surrounding us in the standing room only area, kind of reminding me slightly of the whole Harry Potter fiasco, but it was definitely worth it.  I’m not going to tell you what was said, because I would be doing nothing but an injustice.  As a brief synopsis, he spoke about the origin of PostSecret, how it continued to grow past his initial project, how it was “discovered” by the American Rejects, how it continues to grow with the books, how exactly he goes about posting on the site, and finally he tells you about his own secret that was printed in the very first book (which, as he points out, is the book with his home address printed on the front… and which mistakenly gets delivered to his house once or twice a week).

The time came for the drawing of the unbound galley… and the winning number was… #839745.  Yep… I’m the winner of the unbound galley!  So I went up, shook his hand, accepted the envelope from the publisher with his address on it, shook his hand again and took a seat.  So now I need to be honest, because of some problems with Cereal Wednesday’s post yesterday, I didn’t sleep.  On the outside I probably looked subdued, or maybe even a bit melancholy… but inside was jumping for joy!  I have SEEN galley’s before… but I’ve never OWNED one!!!  That is some serious collector swag!  Saying it is cool or hot are both understatements… so I won’t dismiss it that easily.  If anyone has an idea for a proper word for the awesomegreatness of it… let me know.

The time came for the signing, and like patient sheep we lined up row by row along the back of the wall.  There had to be over one hundred people there… but Frank was really very gracious while signing the books, talking to everyone, and listening to what people had to say.  There were also blank postcards… so some people did their secrets right there and handed them to him… which he of course took to read later.  While on the line, the hostess was nice enough to grab me two books since I had the galleys in my hand and really did not want to lose my place in line.  She also stickied them both without hesitation.  This was by far one of the best B&N events I’ve ever been to.

The line did move faster than Harry Potter… and when I got up there we shook hands again and Frank signed my books.  As the uber-geek I am, I told him how I enjoyed the lecture, and asked if maybe there was a Podcast in his future (yes, the iCult influences me again).  He said it was something to think about.  Then HE wanted a picture with ME.  I got a kick out of that!

Now when he was signing the books, after he would sign it he would then stamp it with a red stamp.  The stamp reads: FREE YOUR SECRETS AND BECOME WHO YOU ARE.  I like that.  I like that alot.  One of the topics he talked about was the therapeutic benefit to the act of sending in a secret.  I know exactly what he means… because I get the same feeling when blogging.  I had also previously mentioned that I didn’t know whether my secret would be in the book… and well I haven’t seen it yet… but I realized that in truth… my secret is already over this blog.  It may not be obvious, but it is definitely here.

It’s here… and I’m fine with that.

There was one small fact he mentioned that I find I must report back to you.  There is one secret shared by so many that it is in fact the most common secret there.  What is it you ask?  The secret in one form or another is… I pee in the shower.  That shocked me.

I thought it was public knowledge that it is a pre-requisite for being a man.

In all seriousness, this is Frank’s October appearance schedule.  If he’s coming to a town near you, I highly recommend going to see him.  The new book, A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book is available now.