When’s the last time you got a real, handwritten letter in the mail? Feeling nostalgic, artist Ivan Cash started the Snail Mail My Email Project.  He invited anyone in the world to send him an email that he would then hand-write (sometimes with an artistic embellishment) and mail to the chosen recipient, free of charge.

Faced with more than 10,000 requests, Cash enlisted an army of volunteers to create and send letters to more than 70 countries on all seven continents. He has collected his favorites in his new book, and this week only, until November 18, he has revived the project. Anyone can make a free request at Snail Mail My Email.

So choose your words carefully, and check out Cash’s visually gorgeous Snail Mail My Email book, which is out this week. The letters are by turns funny, moving, and wry, and all are visually clever. And although they are real messages from one individual to another, they transcend the narrowly personal and make for absorbing reading.