The new year is a time for fresh starts and renewed perspectives. As we recover from the holiday haze of (over)indulgence, the festive party drinks, and champagne toasts, many of us make a New Year’s resolution to drink less alcohol or even cut out drinking altogether.
Some folks opt for Dry January, vowing not to touch a drop of booze for the entire month. Others explore the “sober curious” lifestyle, which encourages you to become more mindful of how much you drink to improve your mental and physical well-being. And throughout the year, readers turn to Quit Lit books — insightful and science-backed narratives like Why We Drink Too Much: The Impact of Alcohol on Our Bodies and Culture by Dr. Charles Knowles, which examines the hidden toll of alcohol on our minds and bodies and invites us to reevaluate our own relationship to drinking.
Curious to learn more? We’re here to help illuminate the growing trends with a few facts about alcohol consumption and some recommended Quit Lit books to add to your shelves.
Fact #1: We’re drinking less than we used to — but we still need to cut back.
According to a recent Gallup Poll, Americans are drinking at lower rates than ever before as concerns over the dangers of alcohol use rise. Gallup’s records show that the U.S. hit peak alcohol consumption between the mid-1970s and the late-’80s, while 2025 marked the lowest consumption rate in the poll’s history. This is excellent news after reports of alcohol consumption spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, we still consume a lot of alcohol. In Why We Drink Too Much, Knowles notes that “in 2018, across the world, the average adult drank the equivalent of 6.2 liters (just over 1.5 U.S. gallons) of pure ethanol.… This works out at an annual global consumption of 37.7 billion liters (approximately 10 billion U.S. gallons) of pure alcohol — enough to fill fifteen thousand Olympic swimming pools” .
Worldwide, around 2.6 million deaths were caused by alcohol consumption in 2019. The WHO warns that while “most alcohol related harms come from heavy episodic or heavy continuous alcohol consumption,” even low levels of alcohol consumption can cause health problems. Participating in Dry January or making a New Year’s resolution to become more mindful about how much alcohol you drink, therefore, is just one way to improve your well-being, even if you aren’t interested in giving up drinking entirely.
Fact #2: Our relationship with alcohol dates back to our species’ origins.
Alcohol is a part of our history and our culture. From celebratory champagne toasts to postwork happy hours to religious rituals, alcohol is woven into the fabric of culture worldwide.
It’s also a part of our biology and genetic evolution.
“Over ten million years ago, long before the human species existed, our hominid ancestors adapted to metabolize alcohol,” writes Knowles in Why We Drink Too Much. “Being able to consume alcohol without averse and/or toxic effects would have conferred a survival advantage” and potentially contributed to the fact that many hominids went extinct during this time .
Fact #3: Dry January began in 2013 — but sober months date back to the mid-1900s.
Whether you’re sober, sober curious, or none of the above, you’ve undoubtedly seen the hashtags, trend pieces, and social media posts about Dry January. According to Time magazine, Dry January has its origins in a 2013 campaign launched by Alcohol Change UK, a British charity. Alcohol Change UK’s goal is not to be anti-alcohol but rather to encourage adults to “drink as a conscious choice, not a default.”
Love books?
Sign up for the free Celadon Books newsletter, and get book giveaways, news, and recommendations sent straight to your inbox.
And yet, Dry January is just the most recent iteration of public health campaigns advocating monthlong sobriety. Records of similar initiatives date back to at least 1942, when the government of Finland promoted a sober January to help the war effort against the Soviet Union. By 2023, Dry January had taken off stateside, with about 15 percent of the adult population participating.
Even if you don’t quit drinking forever, taking a month away from alcohol has been shown to have noticeable health benefits. Harvard Health offers a list of helpful tips for a successful Dry January, from creating a support group to avoiding temptations in the house.
Fact #4: The sober curious trend isn’t just changing our drinking habits, it’s changing our nightlife, too.
Ruby Warren’s 2018 book Sober Curious (suggested below!) sparked a movement, particularly among Millennials and older Gen Zers. Marked less by strict abstinence than a mindful lifestyle change, “sober curious” is a term that encompasses a range of behaviors and attitudes around drinking, from quitting altogether to simply cutting back. The growing trend has made waves in the beverage and restaurant industries with mocktail menus, nonalcoholic beers and spirits, and alcohol-free bars popping up in cities all over the country. Eventbrite even released a report on the rise of “soft-clubbing,” a Gen Z trend toward more intentional alcohol-free events, such as coffee clubbing and morning dance parties.
Fact #5: Quit Lit is a thriving subgenre that helps readers explore mindful drinking or quitting altogether.
Reducing our culture’s reliance on alcohol is a tricky subject to broach, but one step that we can all take is to become better informed about and more mindful of our relationship with alcohol.
This is a central goal of Quit Lit. The nonfiction umbrella genre delves into the many ways alcohol impacts society, our relationships, and our mental and physical well-being, interweaving in-depth scientific research with first-hand accounts to broaden our perspective.
Quit Lit offers readers everything from cautionary tales and words of wisdom to concrete plans for sticking to alcohol goals. It’s all-encompassing and includes an array of outlooks and approaches, meaning there’s something out there for every kind of reader.
Kick off the new year with these top picks from the Quit Lit genre.
If you’re interested in reevaluating the role alcohol plays in your life or you’re simply ready to cut back and start fresh, add these insightful Quit Lit titles to your bookshelf.
