Book survey results

This week I wanted to share the results of the survey of the4thdimension.ca blog readers. We asked for book recommendations. The results are tabulated, and here is an initial report.

At the top of the list is Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Bill Wilson authored this companion to the Big Book. Bill talked about several different reasons for this second book in our Program. He was worried that the Big Book had become a worshiped totem. With this book, he wanted to dilute the growing reverence for the Big Book. At other times he said he wanted to capture the lessons learned since the Big Book. And lastly, he wanted to develop an elaborative text on the Traditions. He had many reasons for writing it.

We have many reasons for reading it. It elaborates and expands on the somewhat brief discussion of the Steps in the Big Book. It is a solid text for the Traditions. And it is a practical guide to bringing the Steps into all of our affairs.

Tied in popularity is Drop the Rock. The number of mentions of this fine book was as frequent as the 12 and 12. It is the latest example of Fellowship Best Sellers, following the path of The Road Less Travelled, Not God, and others. It is a welcome addition to the program literature table. It is a profound and valuable meditation on defect removal. In my experience, my capacity to generate personal defects is boundless, so meditation on their removal is neverending.

Next is an AA classic, A New Pair of Glasses. Chuck Chamberlain’s eminently readable little book clearly outlines a powerful metaphor for the Program; with the steps and the Program, we see the world through a new pair of glasses. Thousands of sponsors have had their pigeons read this one.

Those were the top three, and in the coming weeks, we will look at some of the others, which in order of popularity include: Round the Year with Emmet Fox, Sermon on the Mount, As A Man Thinketh, and Living Sober.