title: To Slake a Thirst: The Matt Talbot Way to Sobriety
author:  Philip Maynard 
description: It is said that Matt Talbot was an alcoholic by the time he reached his teens.&nbsp; he lived to drink.&nbsp; But all that changed one day when he was 28.&nbsp; He was broke; his weekly paycheck had already been passed to the barman.&nbsp; Matt stood outside the pub for several hours, waiting for one of his friends to invite him in.&nbsp; No one did.&nbsp; He went home and told his mother, I'm taking the pledge, to which she replied, Don't take it if you can't keep it. &nbsp; With no A.A., no sponsor, no weekly meetings to attend and no Big Book, he had to rely on God alone.&nbsp; He found a way to sobriety which not only enabled him to give up drinking from that time on, it led him to adopt a way of life such that, at his death in 1925, word of his holiness spread throughout Ireland and his cause for canonization was begun almost immediately.&nbsp; He was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI in 1975 and he is on a long list of those who, in all likelihood, will be canonized early in the new millennium.&nbsp; This is the story of his life and the Matt Talbot Way to Sobriety.&nbsp; Although this Way - very similar to St. Therese of Lisieux's Little Way of Spiritual Childhood - is primarily for active alcoholics, it will inspire all who are seeking a life of authentic holiness in the world.&nbsp; Alcoholics recovering through A.A. may find that Matt Talbot's unique, Christ-centered Way satisfies a need for which they had only a vague, uneasy awareness.&nbsp; Written by a man who has experienced an extraordinary transformation in his own life by following the method outlined in this work,, it is hoped that To Slake a Thirst will provide the answer to those for whom other programs have not worked or who have been looking for a Way that addressed more specifically their own most deeply felt spiritual needs.
zlib_text: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  
  
  Douglas Adams
  
  
  1979
  
  
  for Jonny Brock and Clare Gorst
  
  
  and all other Arlingtonians
  
  
  for tea, sympathy, and a sofa
  
  
  Introduction:
  
  # A GUIDE TO THE GUIDE
  
  
  Some unhelpful remarks from the author
  
  
  The history of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is now so complicated that
  every time I tell it I contradict myself, and whenever I do get it right I’m
  misquoted. So the publication of this omnibus edition seemed like a good
  opportunity to set the record straight – or at least firmly crooked. Anything
  that is put down wrong here is, as far as I’m concerned, wrong for good.
  
  
  The idea for the title first cropped up while I was lying drunk in a field in
  Innsbruck, Austria, in . Not particularly drunk, just the sort of drunk
  you get when you have a couple of stiff Gössers after not having eaten for two
  days straight, on account of being a penniless hitchhiker. We are talking of a
  mild inability to stand up.
  
  
  I was traveling with a copy of the Hi