Customer Reviews

Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes arrived in my mail today! I have been anxiously waiting for it, as I love Keri Smith's books. As I looked through it though, I saw that it seems to be an extension of Wreck This Journal. Some of the activities are basically the same, just worded differently. I was hoping for something diferent, something novel; but I am dissapointed that there's nothing "new" in this book.

I've admired Keri Smith's work for a little while now but I'd never tried any of her books. Someone convinced me to check this one out, and after just a few of the activities I was hooked! Sometimes you forget how much fun it is to get down and dirty and make a mess.

I particularly loved taping a marker to the end of a long stick and trying to draw with it, as well as the writing mess (write a sentence of each line; cut out strips; recombine sentences to create new poems). It really got me thinking more creatively, sparking more ideas and helping me to get into a more artistic mindset. (Sometimes you need a little push to get the gears turning.) Which I think is the whole point! Some of the activities do get pretty messy (cover the page with something sticky; splatter, drip, and fling; etc) but that's part of the deal.

And of course Keri's illustrations are lovely. It's a really beautiful book! (Until you splatter stuff all over it, haha.)

This is an excellent book. I am a musician and I sometimes have trouble letting go of the expectations I have of myself. Self-criticism can be incredibly debilitating. When you approach anything with a fear of failure, you give up on yourself before you have even started. If you are a little OCD or a perfectionist this book might be of help. Smith encourages her readers to let go and make a mess. This is also a great book for anyone who needs to get their mind off of something upsetting. With Mess, you will want to get out, live, spend time with your friends, experience and explore your own creative self and the world around you. And you can do so indefinitely because Mess is incredibly long lasting. There are several exercises in this book which I find myself returning to frequently to make additions to. So, you should buy one for yourself or for the person you know who has been told so often to color in the lines that he has lost all interest in coloring. Enjoy.

I got this book recently and didn't know about the author's previous one. I mentor an 8 year-old girl and we have much fun doing this together. She particularly loved the page that states all the "do nots" such as Do Not Tear this Page, Do Not Scribble over this page, Do not etc. as obviously it's made to be done! Every time we meet we have a blast, such as yesterday, with cracking an egg over a page, smearing it, specially the yolk, then adding ink. So not just for adults but for kids also, although they need close supervision as they make a mess indeed.

I also work on it myself here and there, and find it a good way to get rid of the fear of the white page, and a great jump start when it's time to get creative (I'm an illustrator/graphic artist). That said, I only give it 4 stars because some of it can be repetitive. Also the book pages are not a good support for a lot of the suggestions: "Bury your book for 3 days" or "Leave it in a rainstorm", well, I'll be curious to see in what state it turns out after these experiments. I understand that it would make the book more expensive if the publisher made it with heavier paper, but the quality used is basic and flimsy for the abuse it must take.

That said, it's certainly fun, forces you to think out of the box, and can be just plain exciting.

It's a lot like wreck this journal except not as much fun, but still something to entertain yourself with pretty well.

I love the concepts in this book. Drawing inside the lines as a kindergartner teaches us discipline, aesthetics, and dexterity, but it also teaches us to conform and to not come up with our own form of art. This book, by "coloring outside the lines" gives us a little of that innocent imagination we once had back. My son loves this book. I have to admit, it was hard for me to see a brand new shiny pretty book get dirt scrubbed onto it, so i asked him to keep it in his bedside drawer, lol, but it's a great tool to relearn thinking outside the box.

An out side the box, fresh, funny, light hearted and far from serious book.....uhmmmm, pile of paper glued together!!! A must for those wanting to learn to swim upstream of convention.