The best quit lit books to read when getting sober

If you’re thinking of cutting down or quitting drinking alcohol then quit lit books are a great place to start. There are some amazing books to help quit drinking out there which can provide you with the information you need to make a decision and set you on a path to a more fulfilling life.

What is quit lit?

‘Quit lit’ is the nickname given to literature about giving up alcohol. It helps us reconsider everything we’ve learned about alcohol and it has been instrumental in my decision to cut it out of my life completely. My main motivation for wanting to be sober was due to the chronic anxiety I suffered from after a night of drinking. There were times when I felt so bad that I couldn’t go out the following day due to worry.

I would regularly take part in Dry January after a particularly boozy December. Enthusiastic at the beginning but fail miserably after a week or so. I’d head straight to the pub, bored of being sober. This went on for years, good intentions at the beginning of the year until one day I just had enough. Enough of feeling awful, enough of not remembering half of what I had done the previous night.

The hashtag #quitlit has over 869K views on TikTok – no surprise, with Gen Z paving the way for teetotal lifestyles or at least mindful drinking.

It can vary from self-help guides to authors recounting their own experiences with alcohol, offering helpful advice to those looking to cut back on their alcohol consumption or ditch alcohol completely.

Alcohol is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are presumed to have a problem, a disease, while those still indulging are viewed as ‘normal’.

claire pooley

Even if you don’t want to change your drinking habits, quit lit books can be eye-opening as many also touch on addiction psychology, mental health, and how to change those habits.

They focus on the benefits of not drinking and how life can still be fun and positive without alcohol. They also provide practical tips and resources to help you navigate sober life in a World of social drinking culture.

When I first read my first quit lit book I was blown away how it made me feel. As though I wasn’t alone in my experiences. The stories about wild nights, blackouts, anxiety and regret were so relatable.

If you are interested in reducing your alcohol intake or cutting it out completely then take a look at my recommendations below:

1. The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober – Catherine Gray

This was the first quit lit book I read. I initially read it years ago, which resulted in me abstaining for three months, but it didn’t make me quit completely. I don’t think I was completely ready to at that point in my life.

I read it again recently, and it probably resonates with me more than anything I’ve read. Her experiences as a single British woman in a negative cycle of drinking, making bad decisions, hangovers, anxiety, regret and shame were at times like reading my own diary.

She discusses the blackouts, the embarrassing situations, the drunken tales. The ‘horror’ of not knowing what you did the night before.

Even though she writes about a difficult topic, she does it in a way that is both funny and informative. The book provides the health benefits of being alcohol free and lists over 30 coping mechanisms that will help you when you stop drinking alcohol.

Gray never preaches and is always genuine, heartfelt and real. This is not just a self-help book it’s more like a private journal, which is shared with the reader so that they too may reach a similar point of freedom from addiction.

Buy here on Amazon.

2. Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol – Holly Whitaker

We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at work events, lunches, book clubs and weddings. Yet no one ever questions alcohol and its negative effects. In fact, the only thing we ever question is why people don’t drink.

Whitaker challenges how we are sold a lie and discusses how we are duped into drinking to make us happy, more interesting, less socially shy, witty, smart. You become none of those things when you take a drink. You are more likely to become a bore, socially un-acceptable, less intelligent, less healthy and still the advertising goes on.

An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself. Quit Like a Woman will change your relationship with alcohol – and it has the power to change your relationship with your entire life

Glennon doyle

Buy here on Amazon.

3. Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget – Sarah Hepola

I read this book recently and I have to admit that at times I felt uncomfortable. It is an honest, unflinching account of her experiences with alcohol and the blackouts that followed, causing anxiety and shame. It is a story that feels scarily close to my life at times.

I admire how honest Hepola is and how she doesn’t hold back on anything. Also, the reflections on drink culture among women in the 90s and 2000s are absolutely correct. Personally, growing up in that era, it was socially acceptable to go out drinking copious amounts of alcohol, going toe-to-toe with the men.

Buy here on Amazon.

4. The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins

I didn’t buy this book as a self-help book, it was an airport purchase – something entertaining to read around the pool whilst I relaxed. Unbeknown to me the main character of the book is an alcoholic who suffers from blackouts and post-alcoholic remorse features heavily.

At the time of reading I was drinking a lot, binge drinking at the weekends, usually waking up forgetting parts of my night and trying to piece together what happened. I think I was even on an all-inclusive holiday, which resulted in me staying in bed all day due to chronic post-drinking anxiety, too scared to go outside.

I wouldn’t say this is a book that provides information on alcohol, but for me, it was like holding a mirror up and made me question what I was doing with my life.

Buy here on Amazon.

5. This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life – Annie Grace

This book was recommended to me by a friend who had recently given up alcohol. I found this out by reading a post on Facebook and I must admit, I was pretty surprised.

I knew him when I first moved to London when I was in my early 20s and we went clubbing together, and drank and took other substances like it was going out of fashion. I was curious what was in this ‘magical’ book so I ordered it straight away.

This Naked Mind gives you freedom from alcohol without scare tactics. A permanent solution is achieved by addressing the causes, removing the psychological dependence. Allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking).

It is a great book, well written and if you’re thinking of going sober then it’s well worth a read. It will open your eyes to sobriety and the dangers of alcohol.

Grace exposes alcohol for what it is. Sometimes in a manner that can be quite repetitive, but it’s a tried and tested method that works.

Buy here on Amazon.

6. Stop Drinking Now – The Original Easyway Method – Alan Carr

You may know Alan Carr as the person who has helped millions of people around the world quit smoking. This book applies Allen Carr’s Easyway method to problem drinking by explaining why you feel the need to drink, providing step-by-step instructions to set you on the path to sobriety.

It is an easy read, albeit quite repetitive at times, but that’s how his method works. Carr clearly shows you are not giving up anything, which is often people’s greatest fear and the reason they give up and go back to drinking.

He picks apart the illusion that alcohol is somehow here to enhance your life, when in fact it’s the very thing destroying it.

Buy here on Amazon.

7. The Sober Diaries – Claire Pooley

This book is the story of a year in Pooley’s life. A year that started with her quitting booze after regularly drinking more than a bottle of wine every day. It will resonate with a lot of people who reach for that glass of wine at the end of the day to wind down, who treat alcohol like a reward, without considering the consequences.

She recounts her journey to sobriety in a diary format, giving a day-by-day account of her struggles and triumphs. She treats alcohol dependency in a serious way, but with humour that makes this an easy read.

I hope you find these books to help quit drinking useful (or at least help manage the amount and frequency you drink). They are books that I go back to again and again and have been a huge inspiration.

Buy here on Amazon.