Big Books

[Emimily]

so i was reading a response gravity wrote to a newcomer post, and it referenced needing a real life big book (instead of online) so that passages that were important could be highlighted, etc. i got to thinking about my big books, and just how important they are to me.

i have two, i have a paperback full size with a Burton snowboard sticker (it's a B!) on the front. it has my name written on the top. the middle part is falling out because the binding isn't so hot, and i've used it quite a bit. my mom got it for me my first week sober.

i also have a mini big book that a friend in recovery gave me that i keep in my purse. lately, that's the one that gets the most use because i always have it. it has my name on the top, along with "everything is love" and the words hope, unity, serenity, recovery, and faith along the sides. i tattooed my big book. it has bent edges and it's kinda beat up, but that's because it goes everywhere with me. it's my security blanket, big book style.

i like having my mini big book around so i can quote when i think of it. my first big book is highlighted in all colors of the rainbow. my mini is mostly underlined, since i don't keep it in my pencil case in my bookbag anymore. this text has forever altered my life... i love having it at my fingertips to be able to share with others something that completely relates. last night, my roommate had a problem, and her boyfriend pulled out his big book and had her read the part about being driven by a hundred forms of fear. it was so cool to get to see that in action with people i love.

i know it's kinda silly, but i like knowing what other people's big books look like. at my big book study on thursdays, i always check 'em out. some have nice leather covers, some are large print (huge!), some are crisp, some are battered... what about yours?

[Tazman53]

Emimily I only have one BB right now, a hardback with a ton of numbers and lots of highlighting, some portions are entirely highlighted, I need to get another one to make my notes and highlighting a bit more legible!!!!

I like peeking at others BB also, some folks really upset me with how neat they are !! LOL

I do have a couple of BB's with references in them as well as great indexes to every thing you ever wanted to know about!!! LOL

[bballdad]

Emimily,great post!

if your Big Book is falling apart,chances are,you are not!
I have at least 15-20 big books here at home.Many are 3rd editions.
My original 3rd edition is falling apart.It had notes in it,highlights,and underlines.It serves as a AA history book also because of my note taking over the years.Not much room to write in it now.I have diagrams drawn in it too,diagrams about the 12 steps a oldtimer showed me once in his 2nd edition.It has a old blue leather cover with a beautiful blue triplate 14 yr medallion in it a dear friend gave me 5 yrs ago.

I have a mini big book,the first 164 pages.It went with me to work when I worked 5 years on night shift.It kept me on the beam when meetings was scarce.It has traveled a lot of miles with me.When I was new,I took it to work with me and read it at lunch as I sat in my truck and ate lunch.After lunch,I put it in my back pocket and carried it with me.I have hit the bathroom many times and read a little and got my attitude right.

I have a lot of memories,a lot of prayer, and a lot of miles attached to my big books.They are one of the most cherished (material) things I have today.

I have a new favorite today.A large print softcover 4th edition,I call it the "old folks edition" lol
I keep it at home for reading here around the computer..

have a great day Emimily..

Tommy

[Rob B]

Originally Posted by bballdad

if your Big Book is falling apart,chances are,you are not!

Great Quote Tommy,
Like others here, I have several Big Books, pocket editions for my offices, back pack and vehicle, and my original Hard cover one. This thing is beat, it is held together by the Grace of God and a lot of duct tape.

It's good to look at what I have written in the past in this book. However, when I surrender to the process, I always use an unmarked book, my mind loves to tell me how much I know about the 12 steps, AA, the Big Book etc.. An unmarked book helps me to have a brand new experience.

[Tazman53]

An unmarked book helps me to have a brand new experience.

I like that Rob, I really do, I find new things in the BB every time I read, some things I swear were not in there the last time I read it!!! LOL An unmarked book I can see leading to more wonderful discoveries.

[justanothrdrunk]

I have a bunch of books too.

Got hardcover copies of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition (2 of these), plus a pocket size.

I wouldn't mind obtaining a 1st edition copy to round out my collection. Cripes, I'm starting to collect big books... never thought I would say that.

One thing we did in treatment...
The treatment center gave everyone their own big book. Near the end of the stay, all the guys in my unit signed it, sort of like a high school yearbook. It's nice to go back and read as well as have everyone's phone number right there inside. That's why I have 2 copies of the 4th edition. Treatment more than once...

[Rob B]

Originally Posted by Tazman53

An unmarked book I can see leading to more wonderful discoveries.

Precisely.

[Emimily]

i've been thinking it might be time to invest in a new big book... one without all my scrawl on the side and my bracketed paragraphs. i do love that i can flip to almost any page in my big books and see where a sponsor, sponsee, or fellow in AA has brought something to light for me, and there's a star or it's underlined, bracketed, whatever. makes me smile about recovery.

collecting big books, who'd a thunk it? i used to collect empty jagermeister bottles... big books sound like a better choice.

[sugErspun]

I have 5 hardcovers (3 third ed 2 fourth ed)...plus 2 of the smaller books which don't have the personal stories (pocket size).


There isn't much room left to write in them anymore, full of underlinings, questions, descriptions, poems, sayings .....

One thing that is common to them all - A fellow has a stamp with the AA symbol as it appeared originally - All have been stamped on the title page with the symbol, I think, as it should be.

Great topic Em

[gravity]

My big book is just getting broken in so it looks like a typical book but it means so much more to me.

Now, my sponsors big book is quite something. Falling apart, yellowing pages, scraps of paper, bookmarkers, scribbles, diagrams, highlights. He makes me laugh when he quotes a passage to me, then reads something he scribbled down years ago and mumbles "what the hell was I thinking?"

I usually sit by him at meetings and when he opens his book, something almost always falls out and I pick it up for him (unwritten sponsee's job? ) D

[Sheryl85]

I got to thinking about my Big Book. It’s also a Third Edition since I came in under that era. I love it. It’s not my original. I gave it away to someone brand new in the program that needed it worse than I did at that moment…which is funny. That’s exactly how I got mine from a guy named Sean who got sober in ‘84. (I know that because he wrote his name in it and his sobriety date. I wrote mine beneath it…)

My second Big Book ain’t going anywhere. It’s my baby. It’s highlighted in several different colors, a new color for every step study and book study I’ve been to. Like some others here I seemed to find new material written within those familiar pages with each study I’ve gone to. Perhaps it’s because life’s experiences have made them more relevant…perhaps I just missed the significance until then. Who knows? Who cares? It just happens. Anyway, I highlighted so much that I started resorting to underlining stuff. Then highlighting AND underlining. Then putting stars beside things and now I’ve got notes going on in the margin. That thing has taken on a life of its own! (I’ve even resorted to putting tabs on it!!!) I tried getting a new one (Third Edition) and starting anew with it…it just wasn’t the same. Then my husband gave me a leather bound study edition for one of my birthdays, but it’s so pretty I’m afraid to write in it! So it seems my little Technicolor Third Edition will have to do.

Now days I go to second hand book stores and pick up any Third Editions I can find that are in decent shape. I’ll give those away to anyone who wants or needs them. I’ll buy someone a Fourth Edition if they want it, but I love the Third Editions because the stories in the back are like old friends. Old friends I sobered up with and who have taught me so much. (I feel like I must have read page 449 hundreds of times since the start of this journey.)

You know, I hadn’t realized until just now how much that book really DOES mean to me…I hope many more folk out there have happy stories like this.

[jimhere]

I have a First Edition that I don't bring out much plus a Second Edition that is in good shape.

I have few Third Editions. I currently use a Third Edition to work with others. It is unmarked, so it forces me to rely on experience rather than on notes I have taken.

I haven't bought a new piece of literature in years. I go to used bookstores and look for Third Edition books with the circle and triangle in them. That is why I have several, so that I have a few on hand to loan to or give to someone. I will not own a Fourth Edition on principle, although most people I work with these days have Fourth Editions. I don't make them go out and find a Third Edition.

Several years ago I moved out of an apartment I'd lived in for several years. I was going through my stuff and found two old Big Books from early sobriety. One was the one from my first time through the steps. Both were tattered, broken at the spine with pages falling out, written in and high-lited. Whole pages were high-lited yellow or orange.

I was looking at these old books and it came to me that I had no attachment to them. So I took them out and threw them in the dumpster. I mentioned this at a meeting and heard audible gasps. Afterwards a few people asked me why I didn't give those books to them. I asked why and they said "For the notes in them." The only thing I could think of to say was "Have your own experience." Those notes were no more good to those people than they were to me. It'd be like trying to live on fourteen year old food.

Funny how we worship all the things that point to God, but not God.
Jim

[GlassPrisoner]

I have two. Both 4th editions. I also have a little Big Book, 2 12X12s, Daily Reflections, 24 Hours a Day, and Living Sober.

One of my BBs is tattered and torn, and highlighted everywhere.

The other one is failry new, and highlighted everywhere.

[ananda]

Hi Jim,

I just wondered what the principle is about not getting a 4th edition. I started on the 3rd Edition and have a couple of things i can get pissy about with the 4th....but it just never occured to me there might be a principle involved.

If you don't mind sharing?

[NOMOMERLOTMAMMA]

My Big Book was given to me by A, my partner. It's the best present she ever gave me.

I have phone numbers on the first page.

Passages marked up (like everyone else), no highlighter yet, lots of stars, folded over pages etc. It's spine is broken at page 64. The first part is pretty well used..

I've been thinking bout getting a mini one to keep with me at all times.

We have 4 BB's here at the house..one in the bedroom, one in the bath, two in the living room.

Cool thread Em..

[barb dwyer]

My 'big' book is the mini-big' fourth edition ...
given to me my very first meeting over six years ago -
when I cam to AA the first time.

I have other editions -
I like the differences in the stories in the back -
and I've a copy of the first edition.

But the one I USE .. the one I carry ... is that little first one.

it's written in , pages are taped into it, highlighted ...
I like whoever said theirs was 'tattooed' ... that fits.

On the inside first page is a little pic of an avatar I got from someone HERE on SR, in fact -
a newborn chick(en) with egg shard for a helmet - holding a machine gun.

I dunno.
Some kind of Totem for me.

Written above it on the page is -

Trust God
Clean House
Be of Service.

It's got my Joe and Charley Tapes notes in it ...
quite colorful ... all these different color inks...
If you flop it on the table it opens itself to 'How it Works' ...

wow.
I get all nostalgic thinking about it.

[yogurt75]

Lots of Big Books... anyone can have lots of Big Books; the trick is, are they not only read, but is what is in it practiced? I can read a manual on how to put together a table but until I start with the wood, hammer, screws, glue and nails and putting them together does it begin to take shape and actually BECOME a table.

Let's see.... I have a couple of photo copies of my sponsor's multilith manuscript, a 5th printing of the First Edition, 2 Second Editions, over a dozen Third Editions (including a large print and paperback), about 5 reprints of the 1st printing of the First Edition, a couple of Big Book concordances and over a hundred AA and AA related books. As a student of AA history I also have lots of other books relating to the movements which came before AA. I've read all the books on my book shelves and continually pick them up now and then to find passeges or refresh my often failing memory.

My First Edition is falling apart but that is what makes it more valuable to me. It is filled with underlines, highlights and signatures, mostly of long-term members, many of whom have passed on to their rewards. Those long-term members who have passed on their strength and hope to me as I met them, got to know them and hopefully learned from their experiences.

Oh, I forgot the CD and Cassette versions....

I can have a thousand books but unless I put what is in them into practice on a daily basis they are just books.

[Signal30]

My original BB was the hardcover one. The members at my very first meeting bought it for me that day, (note it was their selfless action that kept me coming to meetings.)

A week later I thought I lost it (I found it two weeks later under my backseat...lol) and ended up having to buy another hardcover. I didn't want to admit to anyone I lost it so I went to a meeting all the way across town and bought one.

When I found my first BB, I gave it to a newcomer as one was given to me.

I still have my second BB. It's in a double book leather book cover with my 12&12. Both my book's have various colors of high lighter marks and you can tell they have some mileage on them both.

I used to think the pages of my BB looked insane with all the different colors of highlighter marks on various sentences and paragraphs until I saw my sponsors BB. His original BB was bought for him. It's the Third Edition, 17 years old, and has even more highlighter marks in it than mine.

I think to a lot of us, our BB's are special to us. It's kind of like the carpenter that uses a old trusted hammer that was his grandfathers. Like the sentimental grandfathers hammer the BB is old, (the first 164 pages), dependable, trusted, and is an essential tool that helps us everyday.

I see a lot of fellow members BB's that show their personality.


Great topic.

Tom

[bballdad]

I still have my original softcover 3rd edition Big Book-the first one I ever got.
It is signed by bob smith and his wife,dr bob`s son.A lady in my home group brought her father in laws 1st editon,1st printing (it`s a really big book) to our meeting one night.It`s a dandy!

[Freedom1990]

My first and only 3rd edition was literally falling apart, and my sponsor always joked that it was no coincidence that pgs. 68-70 (inventory and sex) were always the first part to fall out when I opened up the book if I didn't have it flat!

It's gotten lost somewhere in the process of switching bedrooms around, but by then a sponsee of mine had passed on an extra of the 4th edition, so now I'm busy filling that one up with highlighted portions, notes off to the side, neat sayings I sometimes hear that I scribble down in the very front of it. I also have the anonymous press index booklet stuck in it for quick references, two pages of notes from a meeting I chaired recently, and last month's treasurer's report from the group conscience meeting

[Barto]

I have a few Big Books. Only my first one was highlighted, but it got lost. I don’t highlight anymore because I started to believe that highlighting one passage was a sort of suggestion that other passages were less important. And like Rob and Taz stated, I like to discover new things too!

And I do prefer a physical book, too. I like feeling it, thumbing through it, and sometimes I just holding it.

[Sheryl85]

I think that the way we treat our books has more to do with learning styles than it does whether something has more importance than something else. Speaking for me only, I find that highlighting and underlining only reinforces certain points and ideas that I might otherwise tend to overlook.

But then again, I'm in the business that focuses on things like this.