Customer Reviews

Wreck This Journal

5 star:		(151)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When this journal arrived, my heart sank when I saw there was a tiny tear on the bottom of the spine. My first reaction was to contact Amazon and have them ship me a brand new copy. Then I came to my senses; the whole purpose of the journal *was* to wreck it, and in light of what I was going to do to it, a tiny tear would be the least of its worries.

You see, I made a promise to myself: Follow the instructions and wreck the journal, no matter what my better judgment told me.

It took a few days to get started. In fact, I spent those first few days grieving over what I had to do to the journal (yes, I started by reading through some of the instructions). When it comes to my books and journals, I'm a perfectionist and *damaging* any of them makes me uneasy. Even the sight of someone else damaging a book makes me uneasy.

But, when I finally let loose and did one of the tasks in the book, suddenly it didn't seem so bad. (Plus, it helped that I started with such an innocuous task -- sticking a sticker from bought fruit on a page.) Before long, I was flinging the book at the walls, ripping pages, drawing with glue, showering with it, and a bunch of other interesting (yet highly suspect) activities.

At the end of the day, my family members may think I'm a little nuts for buying a journal I would eventually destroy, however, it's incredibly fun, liberating, and therapeutic. Enough so that I enlisted the aid of a Starbucks barista for my recent experiment (and I think he liked it too).

Truth be told, it exceeded my expectations. Usually, I'm not a guided-journal girl, but Kerri somehow transformed what could be a boring task into something amazing. Kudos to her for it.

(Between you and me, I'm strongly contemplating getting one just for my journal collection. It's *that* good.)

I received this book less than 24 hours ago, and so far it has been a blast! I battled cancer last year, and was given dozens (literally) of pretty blank journals. I didn't open any of them. I didn't want to write about cancer and process about cancer. I wanted to KILL CANCER and demolish any and all cancer-related merchandise. This journal is so cathartic. It doesn't take itself too seriously but allows for rage, anger, fear, despair, and all kinds of other messy emotions. Plus, I finally found a use for all the stickers I have laying around in drawers and cabinets.

It is sad that we live in a society in which some of us need "permission" to cut, tear, mutilate, and destroy things in an effort to purge nastiness from our heads. But -- since we do, I'm glad this book is out there.

For some reason, during preorder, I thought this was a book to read. Like, a book full of words that you sit down in a chair with a cup of coffee and read through from start to finish. You know...a *book*.

When it arrived, then, I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn't, in fact, a book to read at all. It looked like just journal prompts -- bits of writing on the page and lots of blank space for you to fill in. I set it aside.

I picked it back up when I was getting ready to put it on the shelf, where it would have languished with the other books I'd get around to someday. I flipped through it. A prompt caught my eye.

I started reading the prompts and blurbs, and it started sinking in: this isn't a book at all. This is PARTICIPATORY. This is a book that doesn't let you sit there, passively, with your coffee, just observing what the author's trying to say. This is a book that makes you get up, makes you smear it with crazy and beat it up in ways that most people couldn't imagine treating their books or journals. Especially not a journal. Wrecking a *journal*?

Over the next few days, I carried this book with me and beat the livin' tar out of it. I followed the prompts. I wrote on pages with food and with my tongue. I ripped pages out and crumpled them up and stuck them back in. I sat with it in a chair with my coffee, for sure, but I also spilled coffee on it -- on purpose. I wrote in things backwards and scribbled really, really hard.

In short, this book went through things that most of us should never have to. I kicked this thing around and waited while it came back for more.

And, you know...? It was TREMENDOUSLY LIBERATING. I beat the snot outta the pages, but when I was done, there was a whole new surface for me to look at and consider. I found new colors (thanks to berry-blue gum and dirt). I found that I really like painting over surfaces that have been scored by ballpoint pens and fingernails, and that watercolor over crumpled paper makes the most interesting texture, always unpredictable.

What I thought was going to be a disappointment has probably been one of the best books out there for getting me to "lighten up" a bit and just get back to playing freely on a page. From one star in my brain, this book elevated itself with its simple presentation and revolutionary (to me) ideas to a five-star keeper. I'm even considering getting more, to hand out to artists-blocked friends this holiday season.

Get this book. Even if you're not blocked now, or can't imagine defacing a book (even if it tells you to). One day, if you ever are, this book can help knock you out of the rut you're in, and put you on a whole new path.

At first I hestiated to follow the directions in the book but it was really wonderful when I let myself go and started to wreck this journal. It has been so much fun and a truly liberating experience to play with this book. I also recommend Living Out Loud by Keri Smith also.

This book is just plain fun! I think everyone needs it. This book is all about having fun, playing, creating, letting loose and breaking all the rules. I can't tell you how much fun I've had with this journal. At first some of the "assignments" seemed a little strange and I wasn't sure if I would actually do some of them. But I have to tell you that once I got into it I was having a blast with this book and doing all the fun and silly things Keri suggests. This book would be the perfect stress reliever for anyone. It would also be a great way to bring out that inner child in all of us. You can make a mess, tear things up, play around and do all the things that most of us adults have long since given up. Forget about all the stuffy journals out there that want you analyze your dreams and explore your deepest thoughts. Just play and have some fun. This book is all you need!

The first word that comes to mind in describing Wreck this Journal is EDGY. Take every off-beat idea you'd never think of, describe it in a way that makes people WANT to do it, add some really terrific exercises for exploring your limits, and you come up with this book.

I first heard about Wreck This Journal in an altered art group I belong to - one of the list owners gushed about the zany things she was trying based on the "instructions" in this book. Some of the ideas hit me as, "duh - why didn't I ever think of that?" to endeavors I was pretty sure I'd never do. But boy - how wrong I was! I really got into "wrecking this journal" - and in the process, expanded creative limits I didn't even know I had. Keri Smith definitely thinks outside any box you can come up with - and she's certainly not just a "color outside the lines" kind of girl. No...she's someone who wouldn't even pick up crayons to color, preferring instead to run over the paper with her car tire, fill areas with random staples, mail the page to herself, and then find some other totally cool way to radically alter the paper. Her spirit of exploration comes through loud and clear in this book - and it's impossible not to catch her energy.

This great Journal will remind you that paper is just paper and that art is just art - and I mean that in the best sense. You'll be more tempted to explore your art in new and exciting ways after reading this - and the fun is contagious. I'm having such a great time with this that my 7 year old daughter (the Diva in Training) begged me and begged me to get her a copy...which she'll be delighted to find under the tree this Christmas.

You may purchase this book with the thinking you wouldn't/couldn't follow some of Ms Smith's suggestions - but it won't be long before you're attacking the Journal with reckless abandon. That's just the effect this book has on you. You'll adopt a no-holds-barred attitude - and have great fun in the process. You'll also be more than a little surprised at how much you end up loving the finished Journal.

This book is an addictive impetus in a sense - and whether it was Ms Smith's intention or not - you'll find yourself pushing your boundaries in your art...and your life. But isn't that what it's all about?

This book was actually in the juvenile section of my local Barnes and Noble/Borders (I can't remember), and I bought this on a lark for my 9 year old daughter, hoping to get her creative juices flowing and stop her "I hate journaling" whininess (journaling is often a homeschool assignment) in its tracks. This book was AMAZINGLY successful.

Okay, so it's not really about writing (although I think this book would be even better with some interesting writing prompts scattered throughout) but it is about thinking outside the box about books and communication and art. It's about using everyday, unconventional things around you to express yourself on paper.

My 10 year old son watched my daughter for a day and then asked for a copy. The last 4 days they have been going to town on their books. Tonight, watching them smear dinner into the pages (which I covered with clear packing tape -- looks cool!) my 5 year old decided he wants one too.

Oh, FYI, there is also one page that says, "Burn this page." We burned the page together, near the sink with a pile of wet paper towels nearby. But anyone buying this for a child might want to keep that in mind, and either remove the page or make it clear that the child is NOT to do that page without an adult helping.

So all in all, we are all very happy with this book.

5 stars.

A creative, funny, and engaging way to let out all that excess creativity in one huge, disgusting mass, that really turns out beautiful in the end.

I take it everywhere, even though I'm nearly finished with the instructions on each page, I'm hardly finished with the book. I'm determined to fill each and every blank spot with the most embarrassing nonsense I can dream up.

That's the point, right there, to overcome all the embarrassment that arises when one is presented when blank page and raw creativity meet, this book shows that you need to mess up a million times, and that the most fatal mistake can be the greatest thing you ever do.

I love this journal! Have you wanted to be a person who journals, but who gets stuck when you see that blank page? This is the book for you! Each page gives you instructions of things to do to these journal pages. At first it may seem a little silly, but soon you begin to relax, and can see that journaling can be fun. Once you go through these exercises you can face any blank book with courage and a sense of humor!

I have resisted getting this journal for quite a long time, but now I am so glad that I have it. After years of writing in journals and blogs and maintaining it neatly for so long, it was time to get a little dirty and allow myself to explore a journal to its fullest.

This is a journal for everyone. Someone will walk passed me and see that I'm drawing in my journal and ask what it is. When I intially tell them the concept of this journal, they think it's incredibly weird. But after I show them all of the projects and how I did them, I find them with their own journal not to long afterward.

The great thing about this journal is that it encourages mistakes and messiness. It asks that you do the opposite of everything you've done before. All the years of school and coloring within the lines brought you all back to unraveling it again. And it's important that a person does that in their life.

So just get this journal and wreck it already.