I’m currently reading a couple of books which are overlapping with the AA / NA “foundation” literature – the Big Book, the NA basic text, the Twelve & Twelve, As Bill Sees It – in ways that are really interesting and exciting to me.

M Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Traveled” is jam-packed with insights and advice that reinforce many of the ideas I’ve found in those AA & NA books and which I often hear in the rooms, although to some extent then develops them in new directions, or adds nuances which perhaps are already in those 12 Step books that I’ve yet to pick up on. At times the parallels are almost uncanny, considering that Peck was not writing about or to addicts. This fact in itself brings to mind the claim that the 12 Steps could benefit literally anyone in their journey through life, although in a kind of an inverse fashion: the lessons and principles explored in “The Road Less Traveled” suggest to me the many common denominators for all of us – addicts and alcoholics and “Earth People” alike – who at all stages of life are always struggling to “grow up” and become more loving, more honest, more spiritually aware and more effective in “all of our affairs.”

The other book that has rung a big ole’ bell in my mind that’s reverberating with my recovery process is called “The Law of Success,” written by Paramahansa Yogananda. It’s a very short book with large ambitions: the subtitle is “Using the Power of Spirit to Create Health, Prosperity, and Happiness.” I do recognize some differences in Yogananda’s philosophy from standard AA concepts (I’m not sure “standard” is a fair word to use here), but there are certain points he makes – or more poetically, chords he strikes – which I believe are deeply in tune with AA’s spiritual principles.

Do you have any non-AA/NA texts which are echoing and enriching your recovery reading and experience? If so, I’d love to hear about them.