“WARNING: During the process of this book you will get dirty. You may find yourself covered in paint, or any number of foreign substances. You may be asked to do things you question. You may grieve for the present state that you found the book in. You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may live life more recklessly.”
Wreck This Journal is literally page after page of instructions to destroy the book, and the instructions are simple.
1.) “Carry this with you everywhere 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)”
Most advice you receive in life will be about not screwing up your life. It gives a lot of pressure to the receiver of all this advice, suggesting that if you make the tiniest mistake your world will come crashing down; that it’s all your fault. But Wreck This Journal creates a space that is made to be destroyed and it’s actually really fun. Directions such as: sell this page, glue a photo of yourself you dislike and deface it, play journal golf, document your dinner: rub, smear, splatter, your food use this page as a napkin, and ask a friend to do something destructive to this page, don’t look. And if you don’t find anything that makes your book the exact level of obliteration, there’s a page dedicated to a list of your own ideas of how to destroy the book.
Even if you think the idea behind the book is stupid, the 400,000 other people that bought this book would care to disagree. So why not give Wreck This Journal a try, it’s not like you can fail trying to destroy something.
Some of the materials needed:
- “Smells
- Wax
- Happenstance
- Gumption
- Tears
- Detergent
- Spontaneity
- Hands
- Garbage
- Tea/Coffee
- Emotions
- Matches”
Keri Smith has also written Finish This Book, Mess: the Manual of Accidents and Mistakes, the Non-planner Datebook, This is Not a Book, How to be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum, and The Guerilla Art Kit