Best Recovery Books

Someone once said at a meeting that reading books was not his “style,” by which he meant that he preferred general discussion meetings where people just “talked.” Big Book or 12&12 discussion meetings were not his “thing.” That sentiment is probably widespread. As another person pointed out, however, it presents a problem. And this is the fact that, while going to meetings can make us feel better, it does not necessarily help us recover.

For that we need to work the program. And the program is written down. It is laid out, explained, elucidated, elaborated and expounded upon in books. If we don’t read those books, we are getting the program secondhand. We may not even be getting the program at all. Or we may be getting only bits and pieces of it, enough to keep us dry for a while.

It seems that, for many of us, AA is only a fellowship. It is the rooms. But AA is more than that. It is both a fellowship and a program. The fellowship provides the spiritual environment to help us work the program and pass our experience on to others. Yet it is possible to have the fellowship and not have the program. It is possible to subscribe to the “Don’t drink and go to meetings” mantra for the long term, making that, in effect, an “easier, softer way.”

AAs are like most people, and most people don’t read. If that is our case, then reading may be one of those “lengths” to which we have to be willing to go if we are to recover. Assuming that recovery means more than abstinence to us. Then, too, there are some of us who are more than willing. We are driven. We desperately need to continue to grow, and we are prepared to do whatever it takes. We will read whatever books we have to read, as many times as we have to.

Whichever type of person we may identify with, our point of departure is still the same: the Big Book and the 12&12. These two are the essential, the indispensable books. They constitute the foundation. But as necessary as they are, they will only help us lay out the foundation. We will need to read on if we are to build on it.

AA itself provides us with a series of readings which can help us do that. And so we start our list of best recovery books with those “official” AA texts we have found the most helpful. This will be followed by other lists, including books related to but not official AA works, books from other 12-Step fellowships, books related to recovery but not approved by any fellowship, books on the emotions and emotional sobriety, and books on the basic principles underlying the Steps, the spiritual disciplines and virtues.

After we have read extensively in any field, such as recovery, we begin to find a small number of works which are worth repeated reading and maybe even intensive study. That’s the kind of concentrated effort which will help us grow the most. That in any case has been our experience in the course of researching and writing Practice These Principles. We share that experience here.

Posted 12/23/16 in “Best Recovery Books” at http://practicetheseprinciplesthebook...

Note:
Goodreads readers may be interested in “Best AA and Related Recovery Books,” posted by Ray under “Lists” on this Goodreads page, which includes 15 books recommended by him. You may also be interested in Ray’s reviews of the following books, posted here and in the PTP website:

The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Anonymous
Twenty-four Hours a Day, by Anonymous
The Recovery Bible, by Anonymous
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life, by Charles Duhigg
The Emotional Life of Your Brain, by Richard J. Davidson, with Sharon Begley
Being Good: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life, Michael W. Austin and R. Douglas Geivett, editors
Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice, by Kent Dunnington