Christmas Presents: Books!

Hi folks,

Books – good ones – are excellent Christmas presents. You can buy some now for your family members or friends. Most will be delivered before December 25th and even though some may not, they are still a truly wonderful Christmas gift.

We have listed and described a number of books (twenty) here on this website: Books. All of these are for people in recovery from alcoholism. And they are also for those who simply don’t believe in a “God”. When I got sober some fifteen years ago, not a single one of these books existed. I am so pleased that now they are available, truly popular, and helpful for all the folks in recovery.

All of these books are available on Amazon. And when a book is available on Amazon in the United States, it is also available in Canada and in another dozen countries.

Now here’s a tough question: How many books have you read over your lifetime? Twenty or thirty? Two hundred or three hundred? More? Less? Although I don’t read much these days, I’ve always enjoyed reading books. I’ve learned a great deal from reading books and I’ve found reading to be both a learning and enjoyable experience.

So now I will discuss the four books in the above image.

The first book is Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life. This is the book published on January 21, 2013 by Joe C.

I first met Joe back in 2010. I was a desperate human being at the time. I got sober on March 8th of that year and I couldn’t stand the traditional AA meetings. They had a God in six of their 12 Steps and ended their meetings with the Lord’s Prayer. Even though I have a BA and an MA in Religious Studies I have zero belief in a deity. That belief doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

So after about six months of sobriety I heard about a meeting initially launched by Joe on September 24th, 2009. The meeting is called Beyond Belief Agnostics and Freethinkers. When I went to that meeting in Toronto – even though I live an hour and half away in Hamilton – I was super delighted with the meeting! So for about six years I went to that meeting regularly, on Thursdays and Saturdays. And then in 2016 I launched a We Agnostics meeting in Hamilton. It is held every Monday and Thursday at 7 PM EST at the Unitarian Church on Dundurn Street.

Alright, back to Joe’s book! This is another quote on the front page: “daily reflections for nonbelievers, freethinkers and EVERYONE”. Every single day in the book begins with a thought provoking quote and ends with questions for the readers. It’s a VERY popular book! Here is one of the many reactions to the book on Amazon: “This book is irreplaceable. It is by far my favourite ‘go to’ each and every day. Much food for thought, and an excellent way to start the day”.

And you can learn more about the book in this article: Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life.

The second book is The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps. I published this book on February 20th, 2013, one month after Joe published his book. After getting sober, I was eventually delighted to find non-godly versions of the 12 Steps. I was actually amazed that there were so many secular versions. The book includes the Beyond Belief Agnostic and Freethinkers secular version of the Steps. So there are 20 – mostly secular – versions of the 12 Steps in The Little Book.

There are also four secular interpretations of each of the Steps in this book. These were written by authors who had written books, two women and two men. Let me mention one of each. Stephanie Covington is one of the authors. Her book is called A Woman’s Way Through the Twelve Steps. Published in 1994, it remains a very popular book on Amazon. There are also interpretations of each of the Steps by Gabor Maté, the author of The Myth of Normal.

Finally, I end the book with a brief essay on The Origins of the 12 Steps. Here are more details: The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps.

Years ago, in 2014, I published a book called The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery. This was a second edition and it took me a full year to find the authors and get their permission to republish the book. The authors are two women, Martha Cleveland and Arlys G., and I was very impressed that it had initially been published in 1991. As I wrote in the Foreword of the second edition, the book is “the first ‘non-Godly’ version of the 12 Steps ever published”.

Over the years, this has been a very popular book.

Here is a quote from the book about Step 3: “We can learn the universal, generic pattern of life’s dance from the 12 Steps. But in our individual dance of life, we choose our own music and dance our own dance”. The book is 130 pages long and it is all about sharing and interpreting each of the 12 steps in order to be helpful to folks in recovery.

Of course, this book is available on Amazon.

And now the fourth and final book to be discussed today. It’s written by bob k and is called Daily Reflections for Modern Twelve Step Recovery. This book was published on Amazon in January of 2025. Sadly, very sadly, bob k died on August 12th of this year.

Bob had been a friend of mine for a chunk of time. He is a pro-golfer and he taught me and my wife how to play golf well over a decade ago! And over the years he had written 63 articles published on this AA Agnostica website.

Here is a review of Daily Reflections on Amazon: “I love this book! I love how it reflects the past while accommodating the present and foreseeable future in recovery programs. The past got us to the present and informs our presence, both now and in coming times. Bob comments on this beautifully, and I enjoy this work of his. Thank you for writing this, Bob!”

Bob wrote two other published books. The first was Key Players in AA History and it was published in 2015. Bob’s second book – The Secret Diaries of Bill W. – was published in 2023.

So that’s it. These are four of many super good books! Reading books is a true pleasure. Go ahead and get these books before, during or after this year’s Christmas.