I first came across Wreck This Journal around 2 years ago now. A friend of mine had brought hers to college and we had an amazing time doing weird stuff to it such as throwing it out of a window, chewing its pages and various other stuff that we were instructed to do by the book itself. The book is basically a journal that's much different to any other. It's created by Keri Smith, who encourages people to engage in destructive (yet very creative) acts. Most people like their journal to be nice and neat and precise, where as with this one it's impossible - you have to pretty much destroy it. When I bought mine in early 2011 from Amazon I decided that I would put lots of effort into it and make it look nice, I decided that although I already knew a few of the instructions that were in the book that I would do each page one at a time without flicking through to the end to see what the end instruction would be, which is actually against the journals rules - the included instructions are as follows:

1. Carry this with you wherever you go.
2. Follow the instructions on every page.
3. Order is not important.
4. Instructions are open to interpretation.
5. Experiment. (Work against your better judgment.)"


The first page of the book is like your average journal, it has spaces for you to write who the book belongs to, your name in seven different ways (eg backwards, in tiny letters etc) and it also has space for you to write your address and phone number. It then says 'if found, flip to a page randomly, follow the instructions and then return.' It was really fun filling this journal out and I actually learnt a decent amount of stuff out about myself because it asks specific questions and gives specific instructions, for example on one page it asks you to write a negative comment about yourself and on another it asks you to write one word over and over. Then the instructions become a little uncomfortable, such as 'crack the spine' and 'chew this page' etc. I found it hard to do as I had spent alot of time filling the journal out but I knew it was all part of the ultimate goal that the journal has, which is to get you to 'let go' if that makes sense.

Weirdly enough, despite the fact that I wasn't keen on cracking the spine and ripping the pages up, I found it incredibly theraputic. Getting the spine to actually crack was a bit of an effort! I also found some of the pages/instructions of the book quite disgusting, such as the 'stain log'. On this page it had numerous blank squares which are numbered, and you put a dab of food or whatever you want in each sqaure and then write on the other page what the stain is. I decided it'd be pretty weird to sit there doing it myself and so took it to a friends house, it was actually really fun (but still gross!) filling this section out.

Another page is 'poke holes in this page using pencils' which was fun, and another is 'colour this entire page' which was time consuming but relaxing and again, I learnt a bit about myself as I drew some really random pictures! One page that I found quite unusual was the black page which has 'scratch using a sharp object' written on it. On the page where it says 'fill this page with circles' I filled it with cute vintage badges, and my friend filled hers with buttons. Another of my friends simply drew different coloured circles with felt tips - I found it really interesting to see how we all filled ours out differently. I also love the 'draw your handprints' page. It has room for two handprints and so me and my ex boyfriend (who was my boyfriend at the time) drew round eachothers hands and wrote lovey dovey words inside them.

On another page there's a target which you have to throw something at. This was fun and me and a few friends took turns holding it while the others threw random stuff at it such as food, grass, mud, etc - it was hilarious! On another page it tells you to 'scribble wildly. violently with reckless abandon' I found this very theraputic and I actually scribbled so hard that I made a hole in the page, haha. The book has 192 pages all together and it took me around 2 months to completely fill it up, but this is mainly because I only used it when I was with friends as although it's still fun when using it alone, it's much funner with friends!

My journal is completely filled out now, and it's a total wreck! It has bits hanging off it, hanging out of it, etc and when you look at it from the side it's like a rainbow. I still haven't had the heart to bin it, and I don't really fancy the idea of leaving it somewhere public for someone to find, as they'll think i'm a complete loony, but at some point I will be getting rid of it. Before I do get rid of it I will make sure to take pictures of each page, as it contains lots of memories. I know that the book sounds quite pointless, but it isn't. It's really fun and it helped me learn to not be so precise and perfect with my writing/diaries/artwork, and it helped me think in a new and different way. It was very tempting to skip past the 'destructive' pages, but that would of been defeating the point, and so I forced myself to and i'm glad I did! I would overall reccomend this book to anyone who likes the sound of it - it's really fun and very theraputic!

Wreck This Journal is currently available from Amazon for £5.49 with free delivery. The RRP is £8.99.