Wreck This Journal: To Create Is to Destroy

I love it!

This was a hard thing for me to start being a book and journal lover the idea of wrecking one one purpose was unimaginable. But my friend and I each got one and planned on sharing our progress. But I have found this to be very freeing and also it has aloud me to be more creative.

13 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

Wreck This Journal is an easy way to unloosen one's artistic blocks..

Wreck This Journal requires a sense of humor and not taking oneself too seriously. It truly does help a person overcome the hurdles of fear of failure in artistic expression. The journal includes directions or suggestions for its usage on each set of facing pages. For example, you may spend time poking holes through the page of the journal with a pencil, or making a list of four letter words.
There are many suggestions for wrecking the journal from taking it in the shower or wearing it for a day, leaving it sit out for passersby to write, and other silly things. I personally have been working on the page on which I put all the labels or numbers that I collect off fresh fruit. Now that is silly, but keeping the Journal can provide moments of joyful play for those who enjoy off- beat pursuits.

9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

More creative, more enjoyable.

I bought this book after seeing so many pools on Flickr dedicated to it, and just being in love with how cute, funny it seemed! I went out and bought it right away. At first, I was a little scared. Pages were not as welcoming to me, very little artistic creativity, as I had seen before. Some people had created far more amazing books than I could of ever imagined.

I suggest you have thick markers, skinny markers, crayons, double sided tape, regular tape, a glue stick and plenty of other misc. art supplies and materials before you buy this book. It is going to take a long time to finish.


Some of my favorite activities were showing with the book and documenting dinner. I smudge some of my chinese food on it one night, haha! I recommend you do small activities, THEN you shower. I colored with washable markers all over, and was quite proud of the result, I couldn't shower with it.


My final note is beware if you are not very creative: You may find this book becomes a chore. The bare pages welcome ideas and creativity, however if you lack talent and your hello kitty drawings come out looking for deformed mouses, you may not enjoy this as much as you could.

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Great, fun book, an excellent buy!

This book is great! Any creative person should own this book. This book allows you to put your own uniqueness and creativity into it. eg. you write the own page numbers.

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

For those kids afraid to "crack" the spine of a book

My children (ages 9, 11, and 13) love this book! Each page asks the reader to do something desructive to the book. By the time they have finished the book, it has been written in, splattered in, dropped, ripped, and more. The favorite was when they had to take it in the shower with them. Not what you usually get to do with a book! We love books and always take care of them and this did not encourage them to destroy other books, but made it fun that they were given the O.K. to wreck it with my consent. This would make a great gift!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Awesome book!!

This book is so much fun! I bought it while visiting friends and we had a ball with this book!! The kids loved looking through the pages and doing what it said to do! I'm waiting for them to mail it to me now!! Such a great book!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Creatively Therapeutic

I stumbled upon this book while searching for more journals with prompts. As it turns out, this book has a large following, young and old alike. After scouring the search engines (just type in the title), I discovered what the buzz is all about. I eagerly bought one for myself and one for my teenage daughter as a means for us to share a project and create. I couldn't wait for them to arrive.

We've been working in the journals now since May 30, 2009. While it would be easy to just work through several of the prompts each day, we've decided to take our time and give some thought to the words as we interpret them at our leisure.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone like myself who:

(1) journals and/or doodles obsessively, consistently or rarely
(2) would not ever think of defacing a book
(3) needs help with overcoming creative barriers
(4) is artsy crafty
(5) may or may not need another journal

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

WRECK THIS JOURNAL! (:

Wreck This Journal is an exciting way to involve friends in crazy new adventures.. Examples of the pages include: Doing something destructive to the book. My friends and I have run the book over, thrown it down a hill, tried to feed it to ducks, and even more! The book makes you think outside of the box, while also breaking perfectionist habits! Wreck This Journal is a great buy for any person looking for a way to use their imagination! I highly recommend it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

awesome creative destruction

I am so glad I got this book! I use it often to remind myself that life is too short to get caught up in the little stuff. Take a moment to just enjoy the art of imperfection and what it is--It's guided journaling meant to purge the ideals that everything has to be just so--I'm giving it out to my younger siblings for finals week this year as I think it will help them to relieve stress and remember to laugh.
I definitely recommend this book for anyone, especially if you are a perfectionist who is tired of the pressure you put on yourself, this will help you get a release from that pressure and put a smile back on your face and perhaps even help get rid of that wrinkle on your forehead. :)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Juxtaposition

It is completely against my nature to abuse a book. Even a paperback. So it was a stretch for me to actually carry out the instructions within the pages. But the concept was immediately appealling when I found it in the store. It has proven to be a good exercise in loosening up for me. I'm hoping to jog the creativity stuck in my brain.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

WOWEEEEE

This book is amazing! The people at my school are always finding the next thing to do to the journal. I loveeeeee this journal!!!!! :D

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun idea!

I got this book as a gift for my sister. She's a mother of two and recently had to give up scrapbooking because of the blades, small pieces, etc. I wanted to get her something fun so I decided to try out this book. She loved it!

It makes my day.

It's such a great book. It's so fun and creative. I've already convinced about 50 people to buy this :)

FUN AND FUNNY!

My 10 year old grandson got this as a gift from his uncle last week. It's hilarious! He wants to send one to his uncle so the two of them can challenge each other. It's a great gift book for just about anyone who has an inner sense of creativity and fun. This book gives the reader a lesson in how to destroy a book while making art. It will allow you to be silly, to laugh, to be imaginative and creative, and end up with a book that will look worn out and well read, and be a keepsake forever. You will laugh while reading through it, laugh while following instructions, and laugh when you have finished it and put it on a shelf to savor again and again all the moments you spent with this wonderful and silly journal. A great way to fill the long summer days!

So Much Fun!

This book is hours of fun alone or with others. I carry mine with me everywhere and it is great when I have to wait somewhere with nothing to do and it is even more fun when out with friends. You can start conversations with strangers and waiters and waitresses, you can take pictures of your friends writing with the pen in their mouth, you can even pick up members of the opposite sex. Even if you only pull this journal out every few months you will be glad you have it!

Intellectual Stimulating.

It's a very creative Journal.My imagination has gone off the charts,seriously.Its worth buying,it also works as a stress reliever.

Lots of Fun

This book is never ending fun. I got one for myself and my 7 year old daughter for a trip that included a long plane ride. We had so much great discussion, laughs and general fun sketching in the book and experiencing this book together. Each page has a different task and pages to revisit as the journal gets filled with delightful minutia of your day and ideas. Even after the trip, we visit our journals daily to weekly and "wreck" our journals and we are still not done. Love Keri Smith and this book. Don't know when we will complete our "Wreck this Journal"s but we are having a ball doing it. Thank you, Keri for a great experience.

Not what you expect!

I have just enjoyed this book so much. It's not at all what I expected. The challenges can be a little hard to do. We are taught to treat books gently and not to write in them or crack their spines. This book breaks all the book rules. You will find yourself scribbling in it, and making paper chains, and even chewing up a page. I have a friend that bought a copy too, and we will grab each others books and just have fun.

I can't wait to buy this book for gifts for some of my more creative friends. It truly is just so much fun and it has oddly helped me with being more creative in other areas of my life because it helps me think out of the box.

Wreck This Journal, a book of Creativity.

I think this book is pretty.. Awesome. It gave me a whole lot of ideas to do to have fun and it really did fill up my freetime. I even when to watch the sunrise at Hanaumabay (in Oahu, Hawaii) and got the dirt from there to scratch on one page. I enjoyed wrecking this book in any way possible. At first it smelled weird with my dinner put onto one page but then i had my friend spit out her gum (since the teacher told her to get rid of it) on another page, and it smelled good! Very imaginitive, i can make up some cool things like this too.

I suggest this book be for teenagers, or people who act pretty young. But older people can definitely enjoy being reckless too.

A Beautiful Wreck!

Keri Smith invites whoever picks up this book to "Wreck This Journal". As an artists who doesn't like to get dirty (I know, that's a bit of a contradiction) I found this book invigorating and inspiring! Through simple suggestion, Smith allows artists to discover themselves over and over in new and exciting ways with every flip, rip, or toss of a page. Through the course of working in this Journal I found myself on numerous occasion filthy, disgusted, utterly surprised and shamelessly happy. I would recommend this journal to anyone who loves to explore, who needs a stress release, who doesn't mind getting dirty, and who loves self discovery. You're in for a exhilarating ride on the roller coaster of self exploration!