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                          Our AA Literature 

               and why we might consider reading some of it.

Meetings are where we go to learn from the experience, strength and hope of others how they work our program of recovery. Meetings are our medicine, they are what we use to directly treat our terminal, fatal, illness.

There are also many, many good ideas for ongoing recovery that are not part of AA's teachings. We will hear them promoted in meetings, too. (Journaling being just one of them.) 

We'll hear a lot of good stuff in meetings. But we'll hear a lot of crap in meetings from time to time, too. We will sometimes be subjected to some very confusing ideas from some very ill and confused people.

So how are we to know what is - or is not - the undiluted program of AA recovery? What can we take on board that will help us and not hurt us?

That's where our literature comes in. That's where we can know for certain what is actually the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

 Our literature is our preventive medicine. We study it to keep our terminal, fatal, illness in remission.

There are Big Book Study Groups on our book Alcoholics Anonymous, and on our book The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, in every part of the world. I've also noticed the people who attend them usually have a very good track record in racking up long-term sobriety.

For those who have difficulty reading, all our literature can also be found in audio forms, so there's really no good excuse for ducking the opportunity to know what AA is really all about.

In addition to our Big Book and the 12&12 (my personal favorite), there's a wealth of other available books helpful to anyone in recovery. Some - like Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers - deal with the (often hilarious) history of our program. 

Others, like Living Sober, can keep us on track with proven suggestions for staying sober from those who have continued to do so. And then there's The Little Red Book and Our Devilish Alcoholic Personalities, two books that describe alcoholics to a T. 

My copy of The Little Red Book came to me in one of the earliest months of my recovery. A fellow member said I might find it helpful, handed it to me, and ran for the high ground. (I was not known for my sweet disposition in those days, nor for my willingness to accept anything I might consider as criticism). 

Then there are the books for our daily contemplation like: The 24-Hour Book, Night Lights, As Bill Sees It, Daily Reflections, and many, many more. 

I have a large number of them and rotate them in January each year to give myself four "fresh" ones for my daily readings over the 12 months ahead. 

My personal favorite, and the fifth of my daily reads every single year, is called Believing in Myself. I've given dozens of copies of this little life-saver to AA friends over the years. And I read it myself every single year.

 But ... (insert dramatic music here) ... it isn't even Conference Approved Literature!

As you gasp at that news, I'm going to jump right in to tell you that - factually (unlike in the Al-Anon program) -  there is no such thing as AA Approved Literature. But boy-oh-boy are you going to open a can of worms when you tell some AA groups that.

Our earliest AA groups, under the direct leadership of our founders, Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson, read from many sources and authors, both privately and in meetings. These include the Holy Bible, the Upper Room, Oswald Chamers, Cecil Rose, Leslie Weatherhead, Sam Shoemaker, the books of Emmet Fox, Richmond Walker, Ralph Pfau, and many, many more. 

According to the General Service Office itself:

"It (Conference Approved) does not mean the Conference disapproves of any other publications .... A.A. as a whole does not oppose these, any more than A.A. disapproves of the Bible or any other publications from any source that A.A.’s find useful." 

So basically, each autonomous AA group can use any literature it wants to without consulting guidance from any higher authority. 

(Be prepared, however, to find disbelief from many AA members when you say so.)

While study groups are helpful, offering as they do the different interpretations of other members, it is also helpful to read the Big Book and 12&12 on our own. In them we'll find passages that resonate with us. We can highlight them and then think about them until they become fixed in our minds. There is no real substitute for this kind of contemplation. 

Being a writer (and feminist), I didn't at first like what I considered the sexist word usage in the Big Book, written as it was in the language of its era. I even for an ego-driven time considered rewriting it, but somehow never found the time. Good thing, too. Messing around with that text could seriously have screwed up its message.  

The Big Book gives us the full exposition of the AA program in it's now somewhat antiquated text. Over time I have found there is no substitute for reading the Big Book as written. It is our “Bible.” When we study it thoroughly it becomes a part of ourselves.

As for the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, it's a wonderful read and I can't begin to guess how many times I have now read it. 

I still participate in a weekly 12 & 12 study meeting and every time we read it - and because I believe I am always evolving as a person in recovery - I bring new eyes to the text. I know I continue to learn from it every single time.

I used to travel between the UK and the states at least once a year in the 1990s and I always read the 12& 12 on those flights. It's the perfect length book to get you nicely across the Atlantic. 

And, because I don't like flying, I also figured God wouldn't knock a plane out of the sky where someone inside was reading one of His books. 

Yes, I actually used to think that way.  I'm soooooo glad I've kept on coming back.