It is hard to find Alcoholic Anonymous literature that has the same flavor as your favorite meeting... until now. This book was written in the same spirit that claims - "We are not a glum lot." This book has been received with such favor that I have now written a second book to add to it, another 101 cliches, so people now have more cliches and commentary to ponder and enjoy. In the Big Book, an alcoholic' states, "...the most compelling part of A.A., the part that made me want to try this sober thing, was the laughter, the pure joy of the laughter that I heard only from sober alcoholics." This book was written first, with the hope to spread this laughter to the newcomer that has lost all hope. Secondly, it serves to enlighten and dispel rumors about AA, to inform people who are simply curious about the teachings of A.A. It tells what it is really like from someone who has taken the journey and recovered. It is filled with witty heartfelt clichés that are so true, so sharp, they make the old-timers smile and the newcomers cringe. The clichés are used to teach newcomers the greater truths about the cure for alcoholism. Each cliché is a parable, an allegorical truth that is then explained using plainly stated information from knowledgable sponsors and the Big Book with humorous commentary from a recovered alcoholic. This book is not fluff, nor is it for the faint hearted. The world of alcohol and drug abuse is not pretty, nor one easily explained or understood. This book is gritty, informative, and at the same time inspirational and full of joy and hope, but most of all it was written with the newcomer in mind, so it does a balancing act just for them. It is meant to be simple, when I was first getting sober I had the attention span of a gnat. It is honest and funny and gives a glimpse of just how ugly addiction gets and how attractive real recovery can be. After reading about us, our cliches and our solution to a condition described as cunning, baffling and powerful, it is my hope at least some will say, "Yes, I am one of them, too; I, too, must have this thing." NOTE: the font size in this book is very close to LARGE PRINT

This book digs deeper as it continues the work of the first book: a journey into sobriety. I have had many ask me to write about more cliches, so I have. This book is more profound, I could not help but write it with a different voice. The first book was written when I had 2-3 years sober. Now I am approaching 14 years sober, so I am older, I have been sober longer and my sobriety has matured. I still believe, like the first book, the spiritual wisdom of the old-timers is something all can enjoy and learn from, not just alcoholics, but any who are on a spiritual journey.The Big Book states that Henry Ford once made a wise remark to the effect that experience is the thing of supreme value in life. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets. The alcoholic's past thus becomes his greatest asset. The first book was written with the hope to spread laughter and hope to the newcomer that believes all is lost. The second book speaks more to those with a little sobriety, not someone with the shakes. It is more in depth and thought provoking, for those with clearer heads. There are certain epiphanies that come with long term sobriety. In this book, each cliché is a parable, an allegorical truth that is explained using information from the Big Book and the realizations from someone who has recovered from alcoholism and has nearly 14 years sober.This book is not fluff, nor is it for the faint hearted. The world of alcohol and drug abuse is not pretty, nor one easily explained or understood. This book is soul searching and at the same time inspirational. I have tried to get a little deeper with this one, a little more personal, and more spiritual. I hope you gain as much in reading it as I did writing it.Sincerely, Bob T.

Serialized in Esquire, A.A. Gill's Pour Me a Life is a riveting meditation on the author's alcoholism, seen through the lens of the memories that remain, and the transformative moments that saved him from a lifelong addiction and early death. “Pour Me a Life is an unapologet­ically honest, raw, and often har­rowing account of the life of a man who, up until now, we only thought we knew. Here is A.A. Gill at his best. A real-life Bright Lights, Big City.” —Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, and author of the New York Timesbestseller 32 Yolks Best known for his hysterically funny and often scathing restaurant reviews for the London Sunday Times, A.A. Gill’s Pour Me a Life is a riveting memoir of the author’s alcoholism, seen through the lens of the memories that remain, and the transformative moments in art, food, religion, and family that saved him from a lifelong addiction and early death. By his early twenties, at London’s prestigious Saint Martin’s art school, journalist Adrian Gill was entrenched in alcoholism. He writes from the handful of memories that remain, of drunken conquests with anonymous women, of waking to morbid hallucinations, of emptying jacket pock­ets that “were like tiny crime scenes,” helping him puzzle his whereabouts back together. Through­out his recollections, Gill traces his childhood, his early diagnosis of dyslexia, the deep sense of isolation when he was sent to boarding school at age eleven, the disappearance of his only brother, whom he has not seen for decades. When Gill was confronted at age thirty by a doctor who questioned his drinking, he answered honestly for the first time, not because he was ready to stop, but because his body was too dam­aged to live much longer. Gill was admitted to a thirty-day rehab center—then a rare and revolu­tionary concept in England—and has lived three decades of his life sober. Written with clear-eyed honesty and empathy, Pour Me a Life is a haunting account of addiction, its exhilarating power and destructive force, and is destined to be a classic of its kind.

A 75th anniversary e-book version of the most important and practical self-help book ever written, Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is a special deluxe edition of a book that has changed millions of lives and launched the modern recovery movement: Alcoholics Anonymous. This edition not only reproduces the original 1939 text of Alcoholics Anonymous, but as a special bonus features the complete 1941 Saturday Evening Post article “Alcoholics Anonymous” by journalist Jack Alexander, which, at the time, did as much as the book itself to introduce millions of seekers to AA’s program. Alcoholics Anonymous has touched and transformed myriad lives, and finally appears in a volume that honors its posterity and impact.

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. This classic anthology of his major work includes a new Foreword by his daughter, Mary Katherine Bateson. 5 line drawings.

Known as the "Big Book," the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of people worldwide get and stay sober since the first edition appeared in 1939. Opening chapters articulate A.A.’s program of recovery from alcoholism — the original Twelve Steps — and recount the personal histories of A.A.'s co-founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob. In the pages that follow, more than 40 A.A. members share how they stopped drinking and found a new healthier and more serene way of life through the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether reading passages at meetings, reading privately for personal reflection, or working with a sponsor, the Big Book can be a source of inspiration, guidance and comfort on the journey to recovery. This Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous has been approved by the General Service Conference.

The stories of the first heroic black men and women who joined Alcoholics Anonymous, told wherever possible in their own words, recorded freely and frankly. The story begins with St. Louis (January 24, 1945); followed by Chicago (March 20, 1945), along with the factory and foundry towns which spread eastwards as suburbs. Later that same year (April 1945) came the story of Dr. James C. Scott, Jr., M.D., the black physician who founded the first black A.A. group in the nation¿s capital, and was the first black A.A. member to get his story in the Big Book. The book concludes with the story of Joe McQuany (March 10, 1962) of the Joe and Charlie tapes, the most famous black figure in A.A. History. The lives of thousands and thousands of alcoholics around the world were saved by listening to recordings of his careful page-by-page explanation of the message of the Big Book. The powerful spiritual messages of all these brave men and women struck the hearts of everyone who heard them speak.