Frenata: Carr would totally agree with you about "cutting back". His advice is generally to never cut back. Cutting back makes each cigarette feel like drinking out of the Holy Grail, which adds to the conditioning. Anyway, the cool thing is that it's a book about smoking for smokers; it's the only book I ever read that really understood that 'panicked out of smokes' feeling; or the 'oh, my, god when's the next time I get a break?' feeling.
I'd quit a number of times before: twice because I "should", and twice because I was planning to be pregnant - and each time I missed it so much for so long that eventually I went back. I really don't have any will power. *g*. This time, happily, I am finished for good.
It's been a freakin' miracle for me, but a) might not work for every smoker (I think that 60-40 statistic is fair), and b) is probably best to read the book while you're actively smoking.
For your SIL, Magpie, (or for you, Frenata), I'm not sure how great it would work retroactively, because the "take a drag, read a paragraph" was what really blew my mind. My experience of smoking was actively different than I'd ever thought it was, and I thought about smoking. The book refocused the actual experience and put my attention to each moment in the ritual, asking, what's really going on here? That's what was the revelation. I mean, I was COMMITTED... When I first met my husband, and he asked: "What do you do?", I answered, "I smoke."
Of course, I fancied myself glamorous in those days.
