The groups I was attending in my first years of AA hardly ever mentioned the BB! Then a BB study meeting started - just reading a paragraph and the group sharing about it and what it meant to them. Finally I realised that was the way to go for - sharing the text with other people brought it alive and when I went through the 12 Steps, it was done following the exact instructions set out in the book. So when women ask me to sponsor them, we get started on the BB straight off.

I read it, got near thend and started to panic...what do I do now?? Asked somebody and right or wrong he said "Read it Again" :o) It was around this time I started to realise I couldn't figure this one out for myself, asked someone for help. He started taking me to a BB meeting and we also read through just the two of us...

The way he put it that helped me was "You have to get this stuff out of your head, down into your heart", something that clicked with me. I got lost a little in the intellectual thrill of it, going to BB and debating with people, sharing eloquently chapter and verse with cross-references :o) Then slowly I started to realise I wasn't living it...

I hear a lot of opinion where I am, read it, don't read, work the steps, don't...it's always attraction rather than promotion that drew me in, in the end. Something I understand when they say CARRY this message. Those happy little campers that seemed to get something I didn't get - I wanted what they had :o)

P

I was told to sit down, and read it with my sponsor. I was guided through the steps, as described in the book.
I also attended a book study meeting 2x a week in addition to the other meetings I went to where we read the bb at the begining and end of each meeting.
I was and am sponsored out of the BB and when I sponsor we start off right from the first page and read the first 186 pages together. takes some time but its well worth it.

I was told NOTHING about the Big Book when I got to AA save it would be a good idea to get one, so I did - I will always buy a book if there's one available - this is why we have started stacking them vertically. :-)

I read the stories at the back and found my favourite ones. Then I started to read the front pages and could not get it at all - so I asked questions of the sober people and I was told not to worry about all that, just don't drink and get to meetings - a meeting list was all I needed. 3 years later and barking mad, I relapsed and than God, I was introduced to the Big Book. My first 13 months in a Big Book study group blew my mind - I couldn't even sleep that night because it was so amazing!

Every time I take a sponsee on, we go through the Big Book and each time I do, I see something with fresh eyes because I am a different person to the one I was the last time I read it. It's an amazing experience - just like life!!

one of the 1st things I was told was to read the Big Book and that's what I tell others too. What's wrong with that?

My first sponsor told me all I needed to know was the first 3 words on page 112.

Don't get me wrong i believe reading of the BB is essential in my recovery and the sooner it is done the better. What I was trying to get out was reading the BB as a novel as apposed to reading it as an explanation to my disease. When I first read the BB I did not see myself in it, was not till I tried to see myself that I started to see the similarities and not the differences.

G8

I read it like a novel at first then I found a sponsor who explained it was a working text and a spiritual book, that meant it worked best when it was shared and discussed with the benefit of personal experience.