The Big Book Q&A is a reference tool to help us improve our knowledge of the Big Book so that we may be able to profit more from its reading, both at meetings and in individual study. In it we identify people and places, highlight issues, trace allusions, and put passages in their historical context.
Where applicable, we cross-reference passages to other Big Book entries here and also to the 12&12, which will have its own Q&A page at a future date. Where available, we also link personal stories to their audios in the playlists "Big Book Audios" and "AA History & Big Book Authors," on the Practice These Principles YouTube Channel.
Questions and answers are organized by chapter, page, and line following the Big Book’s 4th edition, except for personal stories left out of that and previous editions, which are collected in Experience, Strength & Hope and follow that book.
Entries are updated periodically. Latest are printed in red.
To go to a Q&A section, please click on its name or book cover.