Breakfast with an Alcoholic: Episode 19

Welcome to Episode 19 of Breakfast with an Alcoholic! This week I got to have breakfast with one of my favorite alcoholics and, coincidentally, my sponsor, Tommy.¹

Tommy became my sponsor sometime in the Spring of 2021 and as he mentions in our breakfast, he is an old-school Big Book Thumper.²In our weekly sessions, I’d read the Big Book aloud to him and every page or page-and-a half, he’d stop me and tell me what to highlight and why—and basically re-read to me what I had just read to him. Reading the Big Book with Tommy is really reading it twice at one time—if you follow me.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this and it saved my life. I’m currently doing my second Big Book Study Group with Tommy, where he does the same thing with a group of six to eight people and we work the first three steps together.³That means I’m on my sixth reading of the Big Book with Tommy.⁴ Feel free to ask me if this is how I normally approach reading.⁵ Or you could ask about other books I’ve read this avidly. Don’t get me wrong, I love books and have an apartment overflowing with them, this Book saved my life. Every time I read it, I discover new things, both about the brilliant program that came pouring out of Bill W., but more importantly, about myself.

This is a great episode! I always tell people to stay groovy and call their sponsors, but today why don’t you listen to mine? Come and have breakfast with a couple of alcoholics! And be sure to check out the Liner Notes for this episode!

Liner Notes for Episode 19

Thanks for Letting Me Share

1. Okay, so it’s not that much of a coincidence.

2. If you’re not a denizen of AA, “Big Book thumper” is a thing and usually meant in a positive way. I wonder if you capitalize “Thumper” does it change the meaning dramatically? Make it a rabbit thing?

3. We’re going to start another one in September, if you happen to be interested.

4. I do the same thing with my sponsees and I’m not even counting those readings in the total.

5. Ok, I am prone to re-reading certain books. These include “The Floating Opera,” ‘The Sun Also Rises,” “The Great Gatsby,” and “The Dog Stars.” A few others too, but then I start sounding a touch obsessive.