This book is a lot of fun to play with. It really makes me think creatively. There's so many pages of totally random things to do and slowly my journal is getting more and more "wrecked". My only complaint is I wish the pages were just a smidgen thicker. While some may like when their pens bleed through to the backs of their pages, it drives me CRAZY, especially if that wasn't my aim.
I did like the book enough to buy two more copies for friends. I hope they like it as much as I do!

I had gotten this book before and enjoyed it so much that I bought it for a friend of mine. Lots of fun, silly things to do!

I've been looking for something to help me express myself, considering some personal issues I've been going through lately. While I think this book is very fun and well-thought-out, it certainly is annoying when you're just not in the mood to be creative but want to do something to make yourself feel better. Sometimes I really don't feel like taking the time to decorate an entire page with magazine clippings, so I'll opt for the easy "throw this book against the wall" page, take a breather, and then go play with my dogs. It certainly is very, very fun when you're in a creative mood and have time to spare without tons of interuptions, however, I don't see it as an everyday thing for myself. I highly recommend it for someone who is creative. I think it's a great way of telling who you are without having to put such an emphasis on words, but more on pictures and colors. Overall, get it, whether you're super creative or not, because once you get finished with it, you'll be proud and amazed. I can't wait to finish mine, tuck it away for a couple years, and then come back to it and say "wow, this is how I felt back then" or "these are the things I liked". You get a lot out of just doodling.

One of my students brought this book to class. I teach 4th and 5th grades in a public school. The entire class LOVED the book and the concept. So, I purchased the book for my daughter and two of her friends who are in 6th grade. It is a hit for all. My nephew who is in 3rd grade came over and he can't wait to get his own. I am seriously thinking of getting one for myself. It is a novel idea for a way to enjoy journaling and books!

I bought this journal as a "just because" for my son who is 11 and then as a birthday present for my niece who is 9. They both thought it was a fun book. It is filled with cooky things to do and really does help bring out their imagination. I think any pre-teen kid would love this journal - and its a fun thing to share with their friends as an activity.

This book written by Keri Smith was such a fun and exciting book to own and "wreck" myself, that I purchased another one for my 16 year old son. He, along with the help of his friends, school, the local mall-goers, and anyone they could get to go along with the process of "wrecking" this book, have had hours of fun and creativity following the directions to finish his own compilation of a great masterpiece of his lifetime!!. I know he will find it someday when he is grown and has children of his own, and have a great time reliving the events that he took "wrecking" his own book in such ingenious ways, and will get a kick out of remembering how he went about doing it himself! I've had my book for nearly a year, and am still managing to find new ways of additional wreckage myself! A must have for the young and old!! Anything that has the instructions to tape it together and mail it to yourself, or tie a string around it and take it for a walk to find out what exactly the mystery substance that was smeared all over it, is too much of an intriguing item not to own. Want to remember some of your favorite food stains from years ago were? Well, this is the book to tell yourself what they were at the time you smeared them all over the book, making notations as to what exactly you were doing to "Wreck this Journal" were!! Guaranteed to keep even the most conservative person busy being silly!! You won't regret buying it for yourself, or as a gift for anyone in your life. This gets 5 stars from me!!!

I got this book a few days ago, and have kept it with me continuously.. What great therapy! Instead of offending someone who makes me mad- I wrote my comments in the book!! There are some interesting activities in the book.. I originally bought this book for my son for Christmas, but had to reorder because I couldn't stop myself from starting the activities!!

I have always been taught to respect books, and that defacing them is not right, but this book actually tells you to go out and destroy it, so pushing aside my instict to put the book away I immediately flipped it open and was instructed to "rip this page out and crumple it up" and so I did just that, it was such an exhillarting feeling to do something I had always been told not to that I couldn't wait to do more damage.

Having got past the initial relutance I have jumped in wholeheartedly and have had to limit myself to following a page a day this way I can make the enjoyment last. There is much fun in the different instructions and can lead to some very strange looks from others as you deliberately spill coffee on your book and look quite pleased about it.

This is a great way to let loose different emotions, bashing the book in anger and frustration, gently smoothing dirt all over a page and rubbing it in, stabbing it with a sharp pencil ...

I recommend this for anyone who wants to work through a creative block or let out emotions in an expressive way. I have even purchased two more to give to freinds so they too can have fun working through their creative funks.

I bought three of these on the hope that the whole thing was as fun as the sample pages - really, the whole book is so great! The reason I bought three was to "do" the journal with my teenage daughter, her best friend and her best friend's mother. We set aside time twice a month and "do" the book - it is so good to just get silly with the girls. We have really been able to reconnect with them. I have mine, the other mom has one and the girls have one to share. There will be so many memories tied into this book when we are done - that is if we really don't... Wreck This Journal!

This book is all about freedom of expression! My son, who is 4, and I had a blast with this book! My husband enjoyed watching all the odd things we would have to do with the book so it became a family affair! I love the idea and this is definatley a must have!! Everyone is getting one for Christmas!! Loved it!!

I bought this book because I thought it would help me out of a creative rut and so far,I think it's working:-). Don't be be put off by the strange and sometimes gross "destructions" the author gives you,just go with it! I really haven't really did many of the projects yet,but the few I did were pretty liberating:-).(except I don't think I want to chew paper(although I did as a kid) but I might possibly change my mind. In short,keep an open mind and most of all,have fun!

This is a fun, interactive book that will keep you occupied over the days, weeks, or months it takes you to use it. A girlfriend has it, so I picked one up and we worked on them together. That was a lot of fun, because we had different ideas about what the different pages meant.

Definitely worth the money, in my opinion. If nothing else, you'll have a cool conversation piece you can put on your front table. :)

I got three books one for me, my sister and mom. I had everyone come over and explained the idea of the book. They loved it. And then I said in the next few weeks and beyond we will share parts of the book we have done with each other. It is amazing what differences everyone has-even though they are family.
I also enjoy that my husband and I can do some of the wreaking together-it makes for a fun evening together. It would be great to do with friends too.
And dont forget to take it everywhere with you-you never know what will come up! :)

I loved this journal! I was reluctant to buy it because I wasn't sure exactly what it was even after getting a look at some of the pages online. However, I didn't want to send an ordinary gift for graduation or cash, and after some consideration, I took a chance. I was very happy when I received this in the mail. This was a very fun and creative gift. I have three teenagers and they all enjoyed flipping through it before I sent it off. I think many college freshman would enjoy receiving this, or even as a great birthday gift for a high school student. I would buy this product again.

I am an artist who bought this book for myself as a birthday gift and fell in love with it. What other book asks you to destroy it with reckless abandon? Keri Smith had a wonderful idea...freedom! Freedom to experiment without worry of the outcome. I brought my "Journal of Destruction" to an artist retreat and many artists not only helped me with a few pages but wrote down the book's information to order one for themselves. My teenage nieces also liked helping me destroy my journal so, I'm getting them each one for their birthdays. Yay for Keri Smith. Can't wait to see her other journals with a similar theme.

I could not have anticipated how much fun this book would be. I had flipped through at a couple of stores before I bought it and remember thinking "I couldn't do this! I couldn't buy a book just for the purpose of destroying it." But then I came on here and read other reviews and decided to go ahead and order it. I am so glad I did! It is so freeing to throw it around, scribble on it with reckless abandon and do all the things you've ever dreamed of doing to a book, but knew you would get in trouble for. I have limited myself to one activity a day (boy is that hard!) so I can make it last as long as possible. I highly recommend this book!

This 'journal' is hilarious! Perfect for times when you are feeling down, bored, depressed, or even happy and creative. It doesn't matter, it's perfect for however you are feeling. A wonderful gift book -- I've already bought several for my friends and they absolutely loved it! You will, too -- really!

This is a wonderful product, I plan on buying it again and doing it all over again. It is really wonderful and makes me so very happy! Everyone I tell about it loves the idea and has purchased one.

Very clever idea. I have stacks of journals which I think are just too "good" to write in! I am hoping that destroying this journal will "set me free" and break that mental barrier stopping me from writing in the other journals. The pages are boring brown paper which keeps the price down but doesn't produce the excitement wrecking crisp white paper would. A hardcover would have been nice, as I would have enjoyed picking the spine out of it. Those are my only problems with this book. Finally, it is fun - do try this at home!

i thought this was an actual journal, but it is more of a crafting project, a bad crafting project at that.

i would have given it 0 stars, but that was not an option.

This book will spark your creativity. It will push you out side of your box and comfort level. It is great if you are stuck in a rut!

I had some fun with it when I first got it but the glamor wore off. I dont' blame that on the book but my own lack of attention span. I have to get back into it though. I'm trying to think of whether it would be better to do most of the dares and THEN shower with it or shower with it and then do the rest of the dares...suggestions?

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?

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.

This has to be one of the most simple, yet amazing books ever! This book will make you feel like a kid again and break open those barriers and just allow you to have tons of FUN!! I love this book and plan on buying copies for friends and my son (who won't keep his hands off of mine!) If you are tired of the drudgery of your ordinary life...this book will pull you out of that right quick and do it creatively!

I bought this as a gift for my son who is into art - it's a great gift and a great tool to inspire. He's shared it with his friends who all plan on getting one as well!!

It's a great way to get started on your creative journal writing. Try it! :)

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!

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!

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.

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.)

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.