Hey!
I have often read posts where people have said “this book changed my life” and I would love to hear if any books really helped with your sobriety.
Hope you are having a good sober Monday. I did a pilates class, read lots of my book and am going to have a bath with some new things I got for my birthday 
struggling a little bit with being home all the time but this is a new week and I’m determined to have a healthy outlook!
I love sobriety books and memoirs! I have read so many over the years. Two that are recent that I really liked are…
Quit Like A Woman by Holly Whitaker …this one was magical for me
We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life by Laura McKowen
I have a long long list of others if you want more to choose from.
Sounds like a nurturing day and happy birthday season!!!
Thank you for these and for your birthday message! I’ll add the recommendations to the list!
Tao of Jeet Kune Do - Bruce Lee is an inspiration to me
The Zen Way to Martial Arts: A Japanese Master Reveals the Secrets of the Samurai - Taisen Deshimaru
Not really about sober life but the books inspired me to really change my way of living
No Hero by Mark Owen. Chapter 3 stopped me from killing myself
The Alchemist by Paulo Ceruo Excellent story and outlook on life. Really explains slot of the principals they try to get across in recovery. I highly recommend it.
Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster by Kristen Johnston
Very entertaining and very I spiting too. Just reading what happened to her physically should scare anyone sober!!
Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa F. Smith
A good read about how a person gets to the point of needing rehab and what rehab was like for them.
Paulo Coelho. (I think you got autocorrected)
I loved The Alchemist…sadly I’ve tried other books of his and did not like at all. He’s a bit of a nutter!!
It isn’t exactly a “sober” book. But for this Goat, without emotional sobriety, I can never hope to reach that point where I can cease fighting anything or or anyone, which to me sounds a lot like a perfect state of being. To even understand that concept in its true nature required my mind and behaviors to shift in ways I could never have imagined.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I happened to read the Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook by Ram Dass. Some of the things in the book, I had done on intuition, but lacked any confidence that I was on the right path and didn’t trust in the process.
Reading this book, meditation suddenly became approachable in a way that it never was before. It wasn’t this fake forced feeling, it came alive and felt real. With that came an awareness of the world around me that I had not had previously. It was as if the curtain had been pulled back on many people, places, and things around me. I could see the toxicity of certain people and their manipulation and gas lighting for what it was…
In one call, one person went down their list of ways to gaslight and manipulate. It was so odd to be outside that moment and see them pulling everything out of the toolbox to see if it would work and being frustrated that I wasn’t responding as I had done before and capitulating to their whims and caprices.
Speaking of which, maybe I need to throw it bag in my bag for a reread.
I didn’t read any sober books apart from the Big Book.
I started a couple but my mind was saying things like " this person is getting paid to tell me this, how much do they actually believe it?"
Then I just couldn’t engage.
I tried it 25 years ago with I think Allen Carr’s stop smoking book. I’ve just this year stopped.
The books that got me thinking were books by Special operators. Especially guys from the UK’s SAS and SBS.
Two separate books, one by an old training Sargent of sas described the conditions they had to live in in Sierra Leone in the 90’s.
Only rations and what the could catch to eat.
Mud for a bed.
No showers
All with the threat of being attacked by a huge guerilla force.
As I was reading this I suddenly thought to myself, well if these guys can do this then surely I can do a simple thing like stop drinking?
The other one that sticks out is Ant Middleton from TV’s Who Dares Wins. A former SBS pointman who spoke of how he dealt with fear in his book The Fear Bubble.
Yes, the man was scared everytime he led an attack but he used that fear as energy to drive him on.
What may have started as a little bit of fanboy shit has seriously become a major part of my sobriety program.
As posted on another thread, I’ve been training for an endurance event called the Fan Dance that is part of selection for the SAS/SBS.
It’s not just about physical fitness, it’s about mental fitness. Having the minerals, as they say.
Even though it was cancelled a group of us still did it an I came in 4 hours 12. The younger guys who do it for selection have to come in under 4 hours.
I firmly believe this mental attitude is the main reason I’m still sober nearly two years later.
I purchased Journey of the Awakening on my Kindle after reading this. I have lost my way with my meditation recently so hoping this will be a good read and help me get back in my groove. Thanks.