Many of the joys of living in modern society are simple in nature. For example, in most cites, suburbs and even rural areas there are wonderful libraries. Even the smallest towns often have fairly extensive book collections. Beyond that there are DVD’s, digital books and periodicals. Sometimes, it’s fun to just visit the library and just browse. Given that there are thousands of books, how can we randomly choose a “good” book off the shelves? One trick is to select a book that is worn and dog eared. This indicates that many people have borrowed the book and it is probably a good one.
For those of us in the program, the same principal holds true for one book in particular in our homes. If our copy of the Big Book looks well worn, that’s a good sign. It indicates that we reference it frequently and have made it a part of our lives. Many of us have even committed to reading two pages of the Big Book every day.
On the other hand, if our copy of the Big Book looks untouched, that’s probably a bad sign. Chances are we are not working our program to the extent we should. There is good news however. We can take our copy of the Big Book off our shelves any time we want. When we do so we have a blueprint for living a sober life.

Personal Reflection: Has my Big Book been gathering dust?