Why We Swim cover art

Why We Swim

 Preview

Audible Standard 1-month free trial

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo + applicable tax after 30-day trial. Cancel Anytime
Try for $0.00
Compare plans

Why We Swim

Written by: Bonnie Tsui
Narrated by: Angie Kane
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $18.64

Buy Now for $18.64

Humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now in the 21st century, we swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. Swimming is an introspective and silent sport in a chaotic and noisy age; it’s therapeutic for both the mind and body; and it's an adventurous way to get from point A to point B. It's also one route to that elusive, ecstatic state of flow. These reasons, among many others, make swimming one of the most popular activities in the world.

Why We Swim is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein's palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times contributor Bonnie Tsui, a swimmer herself, dives into the deep, from the San Francisco Bay to the South China Sea, investigating what it is about water - despite its dangers - that seduces us, tempting us to come back to it again and again.

©2020 Bonnie Tsui (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC Exercise & Fitness Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Social Sciences Water Sports Sports Swimming Middle East
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most Relevant
Totally fascinating history of swimming. Not a dull moment! Learned a lot about current swimming passions like Oceans Seven. Inspiring

Amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a truly extraordinary, gorgeously written book!

Tsui takes you on a fluid, poetic, and fascinating ride from the origin of humanity and our connection with fish, to the times of ancient swimmers when the Sahara desert was green, to the communities of people around the world today who sculpt their lives around water, to the competitive lanes of the Olympics, and more.

You can clearly hear the authors mirth and love of swimming in her choice of prose:

“To live deliberately as a swimmer means that you are a seeker, a chaser of the ocean’s blue corduroy, a follower of river veins.”

I loved this book, I leave it having learned so much about swimming, our beautiful, inescapable connection to it and I’ve fallen in even deeper love with water and in the act of immersing myself in it than I already was.

Buoyant, beautiful, breathtaking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is loaded with flowery language and a misty-eyed tone that sadly misses the mark for my tastes. There were definitely good bits of history and good answers to “why we swim”, and I appreciated those parts very much and don’t want to underplay them. The shortness of the book, though, coupled with what felt at times like long poetic indulgences, sadly left me feeling like there’s not as much substance to swimming as other pursuits like running or cycling, and I am a fan of all three and have found books on all that draw me in. In short, I wish there were more hard substance, because I already love swimming and don’t need the sport to be made to feel like a linguistic poem to love it more — there must be poetry books already to that end. The author seems to have a good heart, I was simply looking for a deeper research effort.

Ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I started listening back in the spring and picked up again today and finished it. Great remember why o swim!

Easy to come back to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Eloquent and beautifully written. A love letter to the water. Narrator is excellent and engaging.

Great Book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews