Why We Swim Hardcover – April 14, 2020

This is a well researched book. I learned several things from it. I can swim. I don’t very much. I may return to it because of this book. I loved it!

I don’t often buy books, I usually get them from the library. I started reading this one and decided I had to buy it for my personal collection. I am an avid lifelong swimmer and this book is such a beautiful meditation on the sport. One of the most joyful books I have read on a very long time. Thank you, Bonnie Tsui!I didn’t understand some of the negative reviews as someone said the author is self centered as she describes her personal history in diving for abalone. I’m guessing that person must not have read beyond the first chapter. The author starts out by telling her personal connection to swimming, and goes on to tell the stories of many other swimmers, including interviews and related history, situations, and culture.This is now a favorite book in my collection and one I expect to pick up and read again.

As a swimmer, both pool and open water, I really enjoyed reading this book. Tsui is an eloquent writing, who through introspection, serious research, and experience, brings the enjoyment and challenges of swimming to light. I longed for the water every time I picked this up.I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, because I doubt this book would resonate with non-swimmers. I read many sports and fitness related books and the best ones transcend the sport or event they write about. This book is more niche, but with that said, a must read for any swimming enthusiast.

I loved this book. As a 77 year old life long swimmer, I could relate to much of what she said and to the examples she gave of the importance of swimming to life and well being for those of us who swim. I bag mountain lakes in the summer, spent 16 years on the Big Island of Hawaii doing "adventure" swimming with friends and even taught a class to seniors called, "Discover your inner Esther Williams." I was concerned that there really wasn't anything about synchronized swimming until I got to chapter 14, "The Ways of the Samurai." Embedded in Japanese aquatic martial arts are some incredible moves that have been used in synchronized swimming in Japan and then by other competitive teams. I really appreciated the chapter bibliography which helped me learn more about this. The author acquaints us with an incredible variety of aquatic feats that go way beyond following the pool's black lane line. This book makes a wonderful gift for your swimming friends! My only suggestion would have been to include a few pictures.

This is a fun, informative book. Ms. Tsui does an excellent job of mixing her personal story with pieces of swimming history. Her personal part makes this book very real for anyone who is a dedicated swimmer. We struggle with good days and bad, health and physical challenges, emotional aspects of swimming, and how to fit our swimming routines into our lives. Ms. Tsui demonstrates how she has accomplished this task.I appreciated the fact that this book was not presented as a story about a champion swimmer but clearly a very good one who was not reluctant to share the doubts that swimmers experience.This was a very good read, ironically when pools are closed because of COVID-19. It makes swimmers long for the post swim feelings that the author expresses.

As a 5X/wk swimmer, it seemed to be a book that I would like. I'm favorably disposed to books such as this; for example, Murakami's book on running was also a book of reflections and thoughts on the activity itself. But I marked this down for four reasons.First, in terms of readability, I found "Why We Swim" to be poorly organized. In a chapter that began with relating stories of an American soldier in Iraq swimming in a palace pool, there are sections that discuss swimming teams in England in the early 19th century, international drowning statistics, and the experience of a kid in Madagascar learning to swim. Taken as a whole, the book struck me as a collection of paragraphs tossed together with very tenuous connections.The biggest strike against the book in at the beginning of Chpt 8, when Ms. Tsui says, "Throughout the Progressive Era, swimming pools were places where blacks, whites, and immigrants swam together, regardless of race, in the interest of hygience, writes the historian Jeff Wiltse..." This is just wrong. I didn't read Mr. Wiltse's book, but it's not just wrong, but seriously, factually incorrect and misleading, just one example being the deadliest race riot in Chicago's history happened in the summer of 1919, when a Black teenager mistakenly crossed an 'aqua border' of a Chicago beach and was stoned and drowned by whites infuriated by the innocent transgression. If anyone thinks that Blacks and whites were swimming together in pools in, say, Macon, Georgia, or, say, Cleveland, Ohio, I encourage them to read Isabell Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns" (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award among others too numerous to list) for a stunning account of Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration, and the receptions received north of the Mason Dixon Line.I didn't care at all for Ms. Tsui's slobbering over "Nihon eiho."Finally, and just a small bone to pick, but it was depressing to read that Ms. Tsui cannot read the language of her parents, and I say this as a white American who has diligently studied Chinese for the past quarter of a century. I wish that Ms. Tsui would spend an equal amount of time and effort learning characters as she does swimming.

Purchased this as a gift for my physical therapist for helping me rehab my knee, and then bought a second copy for myself. The book is gripping, and I found the examples of different swimmers and what swimming means in different cultural contexts, interwoven with the author's own interest in swimming to be very intriguing. I learned a lot and enjoyed reading it and highly recommend even for those who don't have a strong interest in swimming.

The media could not be loaded. Perfect for swimmers

O livro aborda o amor do ser humano pelo ambiente aquático, sob vários prismas, mostrando que nossa relação de amor com a água vem de tempos muito remotos. Eu diria, ainda, que é um excelente livro para quem gosta de natação também, pois aborda alguns benefícios de estar no meio líquido para a nossa saúde, como o efeito relaxante e o bem estar, por exemplo.

Bought as a gift for an avid swimmer – went down a real treat

Lovely book for both those who can swim well & for those (like me) who haven’t quite yet reached the relaxed state of flow.

Este libro me pareció precioso. Al ser amante del mar y del agua, estas letras fueron revelación e identificación para mi. Must read si amas el agua.