Alcoholics Anonymous

This is the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous--its basic text. At the core are the "12 Steps" and "Twelve Step" programs are legion--including Overeaters Anonymous--which I was a part of for a time. I'm not saying there isn't wisdom in the twelve-steps. But it's very much God-based. Even though I found a Atheist Group in my area, that aspect of the program was very hard for me to translate into secular terms. Making an inventory of your faults, making amends, promptly admitting when you're show more wrong--these are all good, healthy and healing things--for yourselves and others. But half the steps cite God--and too often the program as I experienced it had uncomfortably cult-like aspects and I drifted away from it. And goodness knows, the whole concept of "addiction" and "abstinence" are hard to translate when you're dealing with a substance--food--you can't really make a clean break from. And I think making food the enemy--as an addiction model does--is not in the end the way to go about gaining a healthy relationship with it--at least not for me long-term.

So my relatively low rating reflects my personal reaction and experience with a Twelve Step Program--even though I know millions have claimed this book and its principles saved their lives. And so pervasive are Twelve-Step groups, I'd argue that cultural literacy alone means you should be familiar with this book. And certainly many of the personal stories in this book are harrowing and riveting--and inspiring. show less

As flawed as it is to compare people, since it doesn’t *really* matter, I think that the common alcoholic actually lives a worse life that you learn less from than those involved with the “epic” sort of sins of history. I know that might come off as just sounding like I’m trying to trash people, but as part of my holistic studies, I just think that acquiring a few lesser virtues and abusing and misusing them is actually better than acquiring fewer or no virtues and just falling apart show more because you have no idea how to live. There are certainly gradations of the disease, but at its worst it brings you to a total loss of virtue and even in more moderate gradations tends to be more perverse than simply being legalistically pure but lacking charity. You can be “as pure as angels but as proud as devils”, and down that road lies “epic” sin, but you cannot really be as impure as devils but as humble as angels, although you can be in denial about that. To the alcoholic, it’s all about me— this “I” that cannot pull itself together enough to live.

“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt”, it’s widespread, and it’s the greatest barrier. Once you can remind yourself what addiction is, whether it’s alcohol, the great classic addiction, or something more obscure, you can remind yourself that it’s not actually worth the price it imposes. Constantly you will forget; repeatedly you must be reminded.

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Food service is often a great way to see people at their worst. I’m a dishwasher at an assisted living home, where a man died recently. In his obituary, there are examples of the various ways that his long life was good and productive, but all I knew about him was that he liked to drink after everybody else was done drinking. (No way to tell if it was only after his wife died, etc.)

I say this by way of qualification, since obviously the above is a hard saying.

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It’s immensely satisfying to read; screw up; make it right; repeat.

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Perhaps the greatest problem with my life has been my conviction that sin is stronger than grace. show less

How does one judge the merit of a book? Is it based purely on the writing or on the effect it has? This book is not particularly well written, but the effect it has had on many peoples lives including my own has been remarkable. In this respect it must be one of the most significant books of the 20th century.

Well written and concise, this is a good pocket book for the recovering alcoholic.