AA Book Club

  Parallel Passages in the Big Book and Twelve and Twelve:    For the next few years fortune threw money and applause my way. I had arrived. My judgment and ideas were followed by many to the tune of paper mil- lions. The great boom of the late twenties was seething and swelling. Drink was taking an important and exhilarating part in my life. There was loud talk in the jazz places uptown. Everyone spent in thousands and chattered in millions. Scoffers could scoff and be damned. I made a host of fair-weather friends.    My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day and almost every night. The remonstrances of my friends terminated in a row and I became a lone wolf. There were many unhappy scenes in our sumptuous apartment. There had been no real infidelity, for loyalty to my wife, helped at times by extreme drunkenness, kept me out of those scrapes. BB 3 The overconfidence of youth was too much for us. Of course, we were glad th...

Saturday AA speaker/history post - The only known video of legendary AA speaker/historian Chuck C - Part 2 (Poor quality):

  Throwback Thursday AA history post - Mike F on Voices From Our Past (Recordings of AA figures): Mike F: Voices From Our Past  

Tuesday AA history/literature post - A 1945 Grapevine article on Step 11: A.A. Oldtimers…On the Eleventh Step… A.A. Grapevine, September 1945, Vol. 2 No. 4 Editorial: On the 11th Step. . . “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” IT is often wisely said in A.A. that we should not become over-anxious, should not expect to get the whole program overnight, but should take the steps one at time when we feel that we are ready for them. This means that although we are not ready at a given time to take this step or that one and are, therefore, not then taking it, we should be disposing ourselves toward it. It never means that we should plan on avoiding any of the steps. Practice of the 11th Step is the surest method of disposing oneself toward all the other steps. It was only through seeking contact with God through me...

    Timelines In AA History – 1944 To 1946   Many heartfelt thanks go out to  Archie M.  of Tennessee, who did much research in order to compile this “Timelines in AA History” and to Arthur S., Northeast Texas Area Archives, who has built upon Archie M’s original Timeline file. 1944  -Wilson’s acquired name Stepping Stones house visited Nantucket; about 300 military A.A.’s stayed sober; Bill realized name inextricably linked Fellowship; Bill began see Dr. Harry Tiebout. Blythewood psychiatrist brought Marty M. A.A.; 360 groups, 10,000 A.A.’s; Bill invited address New York State Medical Society; moved Vesey Street 415 Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Station; time magazine article National Committee Education Alcoholism, Marty M. headed; Betty Smith, Dr. Bob’s son’s wife, married; Betty’s father alcoholic sober after Betty brought him Big Book; Medical Society New York invited Bill read paper its annual meeting, following Dr. Harry Tiebout, Dr. ...

Tuesday AA literature post - Big Book topics for discussion, meditation or use with a sponsee: S piritual Diseases Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn’t think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even thou...

Tuesday AA literature/history post - Bill Schaberg, author of Writing the Big Book, on Big Book history pt 5: