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emilysueallen's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to part of this book on audio. It was not deeply engaging for me at the time and I never did finish it. It wasn't what I was expecting based on the original recommendation that led me to check it out.
traecastles's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.75
jtisreading's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to The Book of Waking Up. First, as an audiobook, it was enjoyable to have Seth read it. I felt like we were sitting in a shop and talking more than just words coming at me. Seth's voice is grainy and comfortable like a fall day with crisp leaves.
I didn't know the book was about addiction and haven't read Coming Clean. It worked out because of the habits I'm trying to create right now and thinking through what is and isn't healthy. Seth is right too, we all have our addictions and coping mechanisms. But this isn't a non-fiction self-help study book. This book is filled with long meandering ideas, concrete prose that isn't in a hurry, and an atmosphere of hope.
There are a lot of examples, well-developed phrases, and disarming humor that combined create a powerful little book.
Listening (reading) becomes responsive here because the words are exciting and interesting. I'm sure I will be reading more from Haines in the future.
I didn't know the book was about addiction and haven't read Coming Clean. It worked out because of the habits I'm trying to create right now and thinking through what is and isn't healthy. Seth is right too, we all have our addictions and coping mechanisms. But this isn't a non-fiction self-help study book. This book is filled with long meandering ideas, concrete prose that isn't in a hurry, and an atmosphere of hope.
There are a lot of examples, well-developed phrases, and disarming humor that combined create a powerful little book.
Listening (reading) becomes responsive here because the words are exciting and interesting. I'm sure I will be reading more from Haines in the future.
andgwinn's review against another edition
5.0
I heard of this book through some other authors that I follow and decided that I might as well pick it up and give it a read. I never considered myself to struggle with any addictions nor have I been on a journey to sobriety and did not expect for this book to be as “amazing” as others have said. However, this book was not what I was expecting it to be. I am walking away from this book with a greater understanding of the purpose and process of waking up from the slumber that I have been in for quite some time. In this short book, Haines invites readers into the process of understanding the addictions that we all turn to in order to cover the pain that comes with life, and the journey that we all face in overcoming those addictions. Such a timely message for every single person, no matter the season that they may find themselves in.
davidmorris's review against another edition
5.0
Haines’s book draws a straight line from pain and our coping mechanisms to the idea that we can wake up to sacramental living in Christ and together with others. The writing is fresh, clear and quick. A good book to own and go back to.
toniapeckover's review against another edition
3.0
Because my family has been involved for many years with foster care and adoption, addiction is something I'm familiar with. I've seen how substance abuse wrecks innocent brains and is passed down through family lines, how poverty and violence and shame rot everything. So I approached Seth Haines' book about addiction and what underlies it with some trepidation. When I was done, I had mixed feelings. First, I know Seth and know his sincerity and honesty and that comes through in this book. He is unflinchingly transparent about his own pain and the coping mechanisms that led to addiction in his life. That experience gives him a clear-eyed view of the tendency we all have to turn away from Divine Love and towards things that can trap us. (Money, sex, and social media get equal treatment alongside substance and porn abuse.) He believes that the way out of these disordered affections is through communion with God, and he experiences this in a very literal sense when the wine of the Eucharist becomes the agent of healing for his addiction to wine/alcohol. (Even though Haines' theology seems closer to Catholicism in this book, the writing style is still very evangelical in its folksy reliance on the bible for any spiritual input. That may be hard for readers who are not part of the target audience.) His best insights, in my opinion, come at the end of the book, when he talks about true sobriety. He describes a 135-pound heroin addict who gets clean, but ends up gaining over 100 pounds because he's transferred his addiction to junk food. "Sober? Really?" Haines asks. "Without an approach to dependency that treats the whole person, including the underlying narratives of pain, we'll never walk in waking sobriety." This I can agree with wholeheartedly.
Haines goes to great lengths to show that most of us deal with addictions of one kind or another that keeping us from connecting with Divine Love. On this level, I think the book works well and will be best for the type of people who have the money, time, and inclination to pick up a book on addiction and apply it to themselves. (Haines himself admits at one point that if you're reading the book, you are probably affluent-ish.) I do not think that Seth set out to write a manual for treating serious substance addiction or its generational effects and so I don't want to critique him too harshly on that point, but I did feel it was important to draw a distinction about who this book would be appropriate for. Personally, I would not simply hand it over to people I love who are mired in cycles of serious substance abuse and poverty. As a relatively healthy person, I can understand what he means when he says of his healing Eucharist experience, "The wine of my poison - it has become the substance of salvation," but as a mother, sister and friend of people who fight addiction daily, I had to put the book down for awhile. (He does leave a caveat for alcoholics saying they need to know their own weaknesses and do what is best for them. But I think that implies a level of health and awareness that many people I am involved with wouldn't have.)
According to the summary on the back of the book, "As Seth writes - addiction is simply misplaced adoration." I can certainly see areas in my own life where this is true and I appreciate Seth's encouragement to keep stripping away the things that obscure my connection to God, and I think this book is most appropriate for people who are in a similar place (or at least have done a good deal of work on rehabilitation, have wise support around them, and are ready and able to go deeper spiritually.)
Haines goes to great lengths to show that most of us deal with addictions of one kind or another that keeping us from connecting with Divine Love. On this level, I think the book works well and will be best for the type of people who have the money, time, and inclination to pick up a book on addiction and apply it to themselves. (Haines himself admits at one point that if you're reading the book, you are probably affluent-ish.) I do not think that Seth set out to write a manual for treating serious substance addiction or its generational effects and so I don't want to critique him too harshly on that point, but I did feel it was important to draw a distinction about who this book would be appropriate for. Personally, I would not simply hand it over to people I love who are mired in cycles of serious substance abuse and poverty. As a relatively healthy person, I can understand what he means when he says of his healing Eucharist experience, "The wine of my poison - it has become the substance of salvation," but as a mother, sister and friend of people who fight addiction daily, I had to put the book down for awhile. (He does leave a caveat for alcoholics saying they need to know their own weaknesses and do what is best for them. But I think that implies a level of health and awareness that many people I am involved with wouldn't have.)
According to the summary on the back of the book, "As Seth writes - addiction is simply misplaced adoration." I can certainly see areas in my own life where this is true and I appreciate Seth's encouragement to keep stripping away the things that obscure my connection to God, and I think this book is most appropriate for people who are in a similar place (or at least have done a good deal of work on rehabilitation, have wise support around them, and are ready and able to go deeper spiritually.)
larissazavala4's review against another edition
4.0
"Addiction is just misplaced adoration"
This book was beautifully written. The shorter chapters kept my attention. I loved how he paraphrased scripture in some of the chapters and how he acknowledged that addiction isn't only drugs and alcohol and porn. It's also book buying, Netflix watching, social media scrolling and anything that makes you feel better that isn't God. I loved hearing his story and how the he tied it altogether. I learned a little about how dopamine works and added a few books to my TBR and realized that I need to wake from several addictions.
This book was beautifully written. The shorter chapters kept my attention. I loved how he paraphrased scripture in some of the chapters and how he acknowledged that addiction isn't only drugs and alcohol and porn. It's also book buying, Netflix watching, social media scrolling and anything that makes you feel better that isn't God. I loved hearing his story and how the he tied it altogether. I learned a little about how dopamine works and added a few books to my TBR and realized that I need to wake from several addictions.
jess_lynn's review against another edition
5.0
I haven't read a Christian living type book in a long while, but after seeing a couple writers I admire suggest Waking Up I finally dove in. I listened to this on audio through Scribd (Haines' narration is wonderful), but I'm going to have to purchase my own copy. This book is beautiful and rich. It's part Haines own story, but also mine too. The last three chapters had me on the edge of tears the whole time. It's...I'm not quite sure how to say...like someone holding your hand and speaking gently to you reminding you of the Love that first woke you and helping you pull off the bandaid addictions and coping mechanisms keep you from living awake.