Order it today on Amazon.com (shameless plug for jay's employer)

So, back in 2006, some folks approached us with the idea to compile a book of all of the best FutureMe "public (but anonymous)" letters.* Being published sounded pretty nifty to us, so we joined forces with our friends over at F+W Publications (if you ever need a publishing house, Amy and the rest of the kids at F+W are your people). Now, after plowing through all the public letters (you have no idea what kind of an undertaking that was -- and neither did we), we've put together what we think is a darn cool book. With a really shiny cover.

"Dear Future Me lets us eavesdrop on the silly, serious, hilarious, and heartbreaking conversations that ordinary people have with the extraordinary people they hope--or fear--they will someday become, providing a fascinating view of the human mind on its one-way trip through time."

- Daniel Gilbert
Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness

"Most of the great philosophers have struggled to define this elusive thing called Self. Plato, Descartes, Locke, Hume, they all gave slightly different answers to the same haunting question: Who am I?

FutureMe.org freshens this age-old question by reframing it in e-mail-ese, the telegraphic code of our daily lives, which creates a sharper sense of immediacy than the prosaic letter. Forced to address ourselves through the language and lens of a new technology, one that stretches and shortens our notion of time, we can't help but ask: Is this me at 42 the same me I will be at 62? Am I just one me in the midst of a single unified narrative, or a series of mes connected by one strand of memories, one starting point, one name?"

- J.R. Moehringer
Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent, LA Times
Best-selling author of The Tender Bar: A Memoir

"Dear FutureMe spills over with all of life's pain, wonder, and mystery. These peeks inside the heads and hearts of strangers are magical; we can't help but recognize ourselves. This book is funny, profound, and endlessly absorbing -- I could not put it down!"

- Davy Rothbart
Best-selling author of Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World
contributor to This American Life

"The relationship between Present Me and Future Me is too often a parental one: I'm forever making decisions on behalf of Future Me, who I treat like an incompetent man-child -- leaving to-do lists where he'll find them, signing his name to employment contracts and bank loans, educating him, tattooing him, and fattening him up. But must things go on this way forever? Shouldn't the Me's have a more evolved relationship? Absolutely, insist the contributors to "Dear Future Me," who may sometimes lecture their self-to-come, but who more often treat that special someone as a confidant, comrade, accomplice, collaborator, maybe even a pal. "I know you'll badmouth me sometimes, and I'm sure I deserve it," one emailer writes. "But I'm pulling for you." Spoken like a true friend.

- Joshua Glenn
columnist, Boston Globe Ideas
author of Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance

*Just to reiterate our commitment to privacy -- we of course are not including any email or other personal information in the book. All that will be included is the subject, dates and body of the letter (just like "public" (but anonymous) letters on the site). In addition, if there is any information in the body of the letter that we think is overly personal, we have edited it down to insure anonymity. If we wouldn't want it for ourselves, we don't want it for you.