Swim: Why We Love the Water

by Lynn Sherr

Swim is a celebration of swimming and the effect it has on our lives. It’s an inquiry into why we swim—the lure, the hold, the timeless magic of being in the water. It’s a look at how swimming has changed over the millennia, how this ancient activity is becoming more social than solitary today. It’s about our relationship with the water, with our fishy forebearers, and with the costumes that we wear. You’ll even find a few songs to sing when you push out those next laps. Swimming enthusiast Lynn Sherr explores every aspect of the sport, from the biology of swimming to the fame of Esther Williams; from turquoise pools and wild water to the training of Olympians; and she reveals the secret of buoyancy so that anyone can avoid the example of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who lamented, “Why can’t I swim, it seems so very easy?” When his friend, the biographer Edward John Trelawny, said, “because you think you can’t,” Shelley plunged into Italy’s Arno River and dropped like a rock. With Swim , you can avoid that happening to you.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, History, Health, Memoir, Nature, Science

232 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2012

About the author

Broadcast journalist and writer Lynn Sherr has been swimming since she was a toddler, learning first by watching frogs in a Pennsylvania lake. She has since expanded both her strokes and her waterways. For more than thirty years, she was an award-winning correspondent for ABC News. She is the author of many books, including Tall Blondes: A Book about Giraffes; Outside the Box: A Memoir, and Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. She lives in New York.You can contact her at LynnSwims@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter@LynnSherr and at Facebook.com/SallyRideBio.

Reviews

[Negin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love swimming and have always been crazy about the water. Show me a pool or an ocean and I’m happy to jump right in. I chose to read this in order to motivate me to swim more often. I used to swim far more before I had a family. It doesn’t help that I’m the only one who has such an intense passion for it, although I keep telling myself that that is no excuse!
I’m giving this book 3 stars since I didn’t particularly care for Sherr’s jumping around on topics all over the place. I would only recommend this to those who love swimming. The book is thoroughly researched – some of it is interesting and other parts were a bit boring for me. I am grateful to have read it, since it’s definitely motivated me to hopefully swim more.

Some of my favorite quotes:
“Swimming is my salvation. Ask me in the middle of winter, or at the end of a grueling day, or after a long stretch at the computer, where I’d most like to be, and the answer is always the same: in the water, gliding weightless, slicing a silent trail through whatever patch of blue I can find.”

“Even the suggestion of swimming be stirring. Watch a swimmer pass a building with a pool: the whiff of chlorine produces a wistful smile. Sit with swimmers when a TV commercial shows someone in the water: they actually stop and watch.”

“Buoyancy also lifts the ego when other body parts start to droop. Curvy people float better than lean beans, and women more than men, because even at our slimmest, we have an extra layer of fat distributed throughout our bodies.”

[Rachel Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if non-swimmers would find it interesting but I loved it. Just the kind of non-fiction I love. They take a part of my life and elaborate on it. Reading these type of books for me is so validating.
Lynn Sherr shares her love affair with swimming and the water, particularly open water swimming. Then she includes tons of interesting trivia and history on the sport.
I just loved it
My favorite quote:
“Swimming is my salvation. Ask me in the middle of winter, or at the end of a grueling day, or after a long stretch at the computer, where I’d most like to be, and the answer is always the same; in the water, gliding weightless, slicing a silent trail through whatever patch of blue I can find. Tell me…to think of something pleasant and count backwards and I’m back in the drink, enveloped by an ocean, a lake, or a turquoise box, carving long and languorous laps that lull me into serenity.”

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild swimming

Il mondo si divide in nuotatori e non nuotatori. E i nuotatori si dividono in nuotatori da piscina e nuotatori da acque libere. Ed è proprio a questi ultimi che è maggiormente dedicato il libro.

Attraverso la testimonianza diretta di Lynn Sherr e le esperienze di altri appassionati che hanno fatto delle nuotate invernali in mare aperto il loro stile di vita, il libro ripercorre la storia del nuoto, a partire dagli antichi egizi fino ai giorni nostri. La scrittura è piacevolmente ironica mentre racconta la mitologia e le vecchie credenze, senza tralasciare i principi tecnico-scientifici alla base dello studio della bracciata e dei costumi più efficienti. Ho scoperto tra l'altro che le cuffie non sono state inventate per proteggere i capelli (ecco perchè mi si bagnano sempre!!!) ma solo per evitare che i capelli intasino i filtri della vasca. Inoltre sapevate che è stato Benjamin Franklin ad inventare le palette?
Interessante scoprire anche che le percentuali degli annegati sono maggiori fra la gente di colore, a causa probabilmente della segregazione razziale che impediva agli afroamericani di accedere alle strutture pubbliche e di imparare a nuotare.

Nel complesso una lettura piacevole e istruttiva, fatta eccezione forse per l'ultimo capitolo dove riporta riferimenti musicali a brani americani che non conosco.
Non so se come libro possa essere apprezzato anche dai non nuotatori. Personalmente è stato come guardarmi dentro, scoprendo che le sensazioni da me provate sono comuni alla maggior parte dei nuotatori. Ad ogni pagina emerge infatti il potere benefico e rilassante dell'isolamento sott'acqua, il buonumore al termine di ogni seduta d'allenamento, ma anche l'adrenalina che sopraggiunge quando ci si tuffa nell'acqua fredda.
Tuttavia non credo troverò mai il coraggio di traversare l'Ellesponto. Tanta stima per chi ci riesce ma mi accontento delle vasche da 25 mt.

[Marlene Rockmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swimming is my sport. I swim 5-10 miles/week easily in the summer. But this year I lost my inspiration. It was hard to swim alone, so I played more tennis and went to group dance classes. And then I read Lynn Sherr's book on the history of swimming, her love of the water, her interest in technique. Lynn is a 65+ ABC News Journalist who swam the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. She analyzes this swim, the legend of Hero and Leander that inspired her swim; she dissects technique (Did you know that the crawl was a Mandan tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota who journeyed to London for an exposition in 1880's to demonstrate their technique?) and she trains with Master swimmers from all over improving her technique on her way to swimming the Hellespont. Thank you Lynne, I'm going back to my Masters swim group, happily swimming in Lane Six. What fun! Inspiring.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuotare è la mia salvezza. Chiedetemi in pieno inverno o alla fine di una estenuante giornata dove mi piacerebbe essere e avrete sempre la stessa risposta: in acqua, a scivolare leggera, a tracciare una scia silenziosa. Nuotare estende il mio corpo al di là dei suoi limiti terrestri, lo aiuta a lenire ogni dolore. Ma si tratta anche di un viaggio interiore, un momento di tranquilla contemplazione. Mi sento in pace, capace e desiderosa di aprire la mente, di immaginare nuove possibilità, di elaborare idee. Il silenzio è travolgente.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynn Sherr was a competent narrator. Listening to the book, I joyfully headed to the pool. Swimming has held a special place in my heart since my youth. My appreciation of the sport was enhanced thanks to the presentation of swim-related facts and its cultural impact.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sherr's book is a charming little read--part meditation, part memoir, and part history of swimming. The chapters are brief and each includes some update (in an italic font) of the author's progress across the Hellespont, accounts of the various and sundry folks she traveled the globe to interview, consult and/or train with, marvelous post cards and other 19th- and 20th-century images of bathers and bathing costumes. (It's really surprising that more people didn't drown wearing such astounding amounts of heavy wet wool).

As a lifelong competitive swimmer, I very much appreciated her take on how the sport has changed, not just historically but within our own lifetimes. While the specifics of her relationship with the "blue box" (as she calls it) are quite different from my own, her writing inspires the same reflections upon when and how we learned to swim, positive associations with long summer days spent at the pool, gruelling swim practices, indoor meets and full-contact open water racing, and the stolen pleasure of swimming daily for an hour and considering it my "sanity break."

While Swim: Why We Love the Water will not induce any sort of epiphany, aquatic or otherwise, it will certainly inspire you to pause and reflect happily upon your own many reasons for why you love to swim so much. The book is a super fast read, and one that any adult swimmer should enjoy.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. She feels just the way I do about living in swim and filled me in on all kinds of trivia and history.

"Swimming is my salvation. Ask me in the middle of winter, or at the end of a grueling day, or after a long stretch at the computer, where I'd most like to be, and the answer is always the same: in the water, gliding weightless, slicing a silent trail through whatever patch of blue I can find."

*the silky feeling of liquid on skin
*the chance to float free
* as close to flying as I'll get

"Swimming stretches my body beyond its earthly limits, helping to soothe every ache and caress every muscle. But it's also an inward journey, a time of quiet contemplation, when, encased in an element at once hostile and familiar, I find myself at peace, able --and eager--to flex my mind, imagine new possibilities, to work things out without the startling interruptions of human voice or modern life. The silence is stunning."

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love to swim, before my muscular and coordination loss prevented me from that pleasure. I had a little of that former joy reading Lynn Sherr's _Swim: Why We Love The Water_, a lengthy meditation with a good dose of history and art and sports wisdom. The concentration swimming demands means it is where some of us are fully present in the moment, learning from swimming what we might learn through other spiritual practices. Indeed, I know many people whose best time to meditate or pray is swimming (why not? we have other forms of movement meditation and prayers - walking, yoga, finger labyrinths, tai chi, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned.) Some of what Sherr includes may startle, and that's a good thing; let us have the water dissolve divisions and assumptions and pull our focus back to being present to what is.

[Jileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I marked this book as “want to read” in 2012. How ironic that I decided to read this book, not really knowing what to expect, in the month that I started swimming again.

What seems like a million years ago my mom put me on the city swim team because my brothers were on it. I think I was nine. I don’t remember learning to swim, but I do remember eventually competing in all the strokes. And then I grew up and moved onto other interests. But swimming never really left me.

While reading this book I have fallen head over heels for the author’s words describing the history of swimming, her own journey of swimming the Helespont, the joy, pleasure, meditativeness, and health benefits of swimming, and all the amazing places around the world that I could possibly ever choose to race in the water. I have pondered about these things as I have restarted (or continued) my own journey of swimming. It has been a bit surreal. The author’s words practically sing to me of why I love the water too.

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro curioso, eterogeneo, un po' folle. La traccia autobiografica dell'attraversamento dell'Ellesponto da parte dell'autrice procede in parallelo a una seria di approfondimenti estremamente variegati sul nuoto: dalle sue origini ai diversi stili, dalla frequentazione delle piscine allo stile dei costumi da bagno. Lettura estremamente piacevole, fa davvero venire voglia di nuotare.

[Gwendolyn Heilig · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really really liked this book. i was interested by the topic, but expected it to be a mediocre nonfiction book. instead, lynn sherr created an interesting storyline that taught me about swimming but also told a story.
probably my favorite book ive read this yr

[Nikita Agarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked reading about different swimmers, different places to swim and why people love swimming.
Some parts made me love swimming more than I already do and inspired me to swim more.

Some parts of the book are really boring and the writing is flat. The book is badly structured, jumping from one topic to another, with no connection or proper flow.

[Kelly Kittel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a water-lover who claims to be part fish, Swim was the perfect summer read for me as I swam daily in my beloved ocean. Indeed, to quote the author, we were fish ourselves hundreds of millions of years ago! "The fish part of us is really very deep, and it's written inside of the basic structure of our bodies," says Neil Shubin who led the team in the Canadian Arctic in 2004 that found the missing link between our aquatic ancestors and land-based mammals, namely a 375-million-year-old fossil fish. You may have never heard about your 9-foot-long ancestor who crawled out of the primordial pool to be called Tiktaalik, which means large freshwater fish in Inuit, but he was apparently sick and tired of being all wet and got this whole beach party started. I'll be reading Shubins book, Your Inner Fish, next so stay tuned for more on that, including how you're closer to sharks than you might like to think. Suffice to say that the key to it all is Breathe-ing! But that's a different book...

Part history, part sport, part art, Swim is a complete celebration of swimming. "The definition of swimming," according to one nineteenth century instructor, is "to keep yourself afloat and make progress." Indeed. "Water is something very magical to us," says Shubin and I completely agree. Swimming, says the book and I, is the closest thing to a perfect sport. According to Sherr, swimming uses every large muscle group, builds lean muscle mass, promotes flexibility, lowers blood pressure, optimizes cholesterol levels, improves circulation and heart function, expands lung capacity and increases cardiovascular performance." To which I say, Amen! Swim reminded me that our skin is our largest organ, so swimming is the most sensuous of sports. And if that's not enough reason to get off your chair and dive in, swimming is fun! As is reading this book!

[Jenna Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was full of crazy fun facts about swimming:

Women first competed in Olympic swimming in 1912, but not in the US. And the states didn't allow women to compete without long skirts until years later.

Goggles weren't permitted in the Olympics til 1976.

Michael Phelps' arm span is longer than his height.

Those are the types of things I learned reading this book. However, despite the encyclopedia/fun fact nature of it, I wanted the book to be a bit more. I do think the author tried to do that by interlacing the story of her own personal swim journey as she raced across Hellespoint, a history laden 4-mile stretch of water from Europe to Asia. But... while the idea was a good one... after joining her for that swim, I wasn't left with a strong enough sense of why we should care about that journey.

It just sort of read like a good primer for people getting interested in swimming for the first time mid-life.

That said: A quick read. And I learned a lot of fun facts.

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading and holding this book. I would have wished it longer but it was also perfect just like this. Initially her palpable sense of humor seemed a little too goofy but I find now I will miss her voice. From the gorgeous cover to the cool graphics, it was just great.
Swimming has also been my salvation and obviously I am biased, but she presented everything compellingly and interestingly which left me wanting even more- an almost perfect reading experience. Historical facts, goofy anecdotes, serious issues, and personal experiences all meshed amazingly well and I loved how she presented her personal Hellespont race progress at the beginning of each chapter, in different type. I felt I was swimming along with her, palpably so.
Really just a great read. I did not even mind the grainy B&W poorly reproduced photographs, normally an irritant and distraction.
I may even purchase it-just Love That Cover!

[Ci · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has ranged the swimming from a historic/anthropological strand as well as a chronicle of the author's own experience and achievement as a high-level amateur swimmer. It is not a training manual, although there are technical details from breathing to swimming attires. Its central idea is swimming as a delight for human body and mind. Our largest organ is skin, how does one feel if our skin is immersed in the womb-like support of water? And the sun and wind, the gravitational release, the dynamic yet fluid movement of every parts of our body? The author has a genuine voice in sharing her delight and thoughts of being a swimmer.

Highly recommended for swimmers; it is very quick read.

[Lisa Creane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the clever little swimmer on the bottom of the pages tracking how far you've gotten in the book; the interesting sidebars; the historical context; the science of swimming; the story of Lynn's quest to cover the strait between Europe and Asia called the Hellespont; the color pictures; the cultural references; the cover; the highly accessible and yet never base language; the references to other books on swimming. But most of all, the book did what it tried to, which is urge me, nay direct me to the nearest body of water to jump in and feel that described liquid silk envelop my own largest organ in my body (i.e. skin) and move through that medium with no gravity and swim...

[Asya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp in the history of swimming, from ancient Greece to current Olympians and their technical suits and technique. Well-researched and exuberantly written (and with guest appearances by Esther Williams, Diana Nyad, Michael Phelps, and Oliver Sacks, among others), a fun and informative read that also makes you want to stop reading and go swimming. The bibliography of swimming books and otherwise at the end, and the references throughout, also make this book a great springboard for further research into the cultural history of the sport, if you're a swimming nerd and so inclined.

[Elalma · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'ho comprato d'impulso, perché amo nuotare, ma è anche stata una lettura molto piacevole: mentre lo leggevo avevo voglia di correre subito in piscina, dato che trasmette immediatamente tutto l'entusiasmo, l'amore per l'acqua come elemento quasi naturale. Nuotare, infatti, è un po' come viaggiare alla ricerca di se stessi. Fa stare bene non solo nel fisico, ma anche nella mente. Ho provato una grande invidia per l'autrice, che ha sfidato se stessa, attraversando l'Ellesponto.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book and a fast read. Written by a swimmer, about swimming, for swimmers. Tends to jump around a bit, but still entertaining.

[Salem · Rating 2 out of 5]

More a tangle of seaweed than a finely woven tale, it was still interesting. Maybe because i'd rather be in the water myself.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really adorable and interesting book. 4.5 stars. Well-written, well-researched, and enjoyable.

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people, weirdly, don't love water. Their joints don't ache for cold water and when they see others swimming in an unexpected place, they don't decide they can swim in their underwear or less. If you are such a person this book may convince you to give it a go. It's a history and miscellany of swimming from ancient civilisations to modern Olympians through Hollywood movies and fun events where 100,000’s challenge themselves to swim further than they ever have before.

Sherr considers how we lost touch with water in some centuries and places. Sometimes it was people’s seperation from nature itself or segregation where for instance the United States deliberately excluded Black Americans from pools, beaches and lakes. Alienation, racism and women’s oppression virtually guaranteed that in accidents on water most people would drown.

Some Europeans learnt or re-learnt swimming skills from indigenous communities from the Americas, Africa and Australasia. Venetian explorer Cadomosto described West African swimmers in 1455 as the best in the world (p29) - a reminder that it was the Atlantic slave trade that drove people iaway from the coasts not some mythical fear of water. Two members of the Ojibwe people, We Nish Ka We Bee, Flying Gull and Sah-Mah, Tobacco were invited to Britain from America for an exhibition competition in 1844. They raced with what was described as an entirely “un-european” fast front-crawl stroke, covering 130 feet, 39.6 metres in less than 30 seconds (p66-68). In 1902 Dick Cavil developed Australian crawl, having learnt aspects of it from Solomon Islanders’ swimming.

The extended section on elite swimming shows Sherr suitably awed by the physical prowess of this relatively small group of swimmers who clock up the gold, silver and bronze medals. “This”, a Dutch journalist says of his national athletes, “is swimming”. Well, yes but so is Sherr’s journey to being able to swim across the Hellespont and all those swimmers who pioneered long distance swimming, many of them the women included here. Swimming is also every tiny child itching to be in water and the toughies who swim in the sea every day of the year. This book captures why we do and quite a lot of the joy swimmers feel in water.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book by journalist Lynn Sherr because I completed the swim from Alcatraz to SF shore in July and have been pondering my experience ever since. A neighbor friend lent me this non-fiction book months ago and I've been reading it off and on as while it compels me....getting lost in fiction seemed to have compelled me more. Why does someone do something like open water swimming? I think if I hadn't had a heart attack 12 hours later I would have been more enthusiastic but I had been wavering between "what did I do to myself" and " I loved that I conquered this swim and I want to do it again--but much better than the first time". Lynn Sherr gave me some answers to my pondering. It's a beautiful thing to be moving through water and isolated between the great beyond and your thoughts. I might have had the heart attack anyway and by swimming 2 hours and possibly 3 miles in the SF bay might have pushed it sooner rather than later. I might be thankful to swimming for making me aware of my genetic pre-disposition and now I hope that given Lynn's frank overview of history, many open water swimming accounts and her own account of this challenge of the Hellespont swim to Asia that I can continue this passion-obsession with Open water swimming because its a lifelong habit that ultimately is quite healthy.

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't remember not knowing how to swim. I remember learning the different strokes and how to tread water, but I don't ever remember being afraid of the deep end of the pool. When I started swimming lessons at 6, I skipped the first two levels. I still love swimming, but probably not as much as Lynn Sherr.

In this slim volume, Sherr frames the work around a race across the Hellespont (a Turkish strait that separates Europe from Asia). She gives brief accounts of the history and mythology of swimming, bathing costumes, competitive swimming, open water swims, and the development of the different strokes, while chronicling her training for the Hellespont race.

If you like swimming, this is a good one to pick up. It's short and sweet, and mostly just enthusiastic about how great it feels to be in the water. My only complaint is that pools are still covid closed where I am, so I couldn't go swimming right away.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die ersten Kapitel mit der historischen Abhandlung über das Schwimmen haben mir sehr gut gefallen, auch die Verbindung zum Hellespont passt schon, auch wenn ich fand, dass hier ein 4-Meilen-Schwimmen und dessen Vorbereitung leicht übertrieben hoch aufgehängt wurde. (Unnötig auch die häufigen Hinweise auf den Veranstalter, bei dem man die Teilnahme buchen kann.) Hintenraus wurde der Text dann etwas unübersichtlich, in den letzten Kapiteln musste gefühlt alles untergebracht werden, was der Autorin noch zum Thema eingefallen ist.
Dennoch wohlwollende 4 Sterne, weil ich einfach gerne Bücher übers Schwimmen lesen. Eine besondere Empfehlung an dieser Stelle für Swell - A Waterbiography von Jenny Landreth.

[readsofmytwenties · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up at Eagle Eye a while back and carried around through two weeks of hectic international travel, this felt like the perfect thing to read on the beaches of Quintana Roo. As someone who likes swimming but doesn’t necessarily *love* it, I might have gone a little too niche for my preferences, but this was a fun, quick nonfiction read nonetheless. Some of the parts about women’s swimwear and body image REALLY felt like they were written by a white American boomer (they were) which was disappointing but expected. Overall, I’m not sure I’d recommend, but it was nice for a beach vacation read.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really check out this book to read it cover to cover. I just wanted to skim through it. If you want a thorough understanding of the history of swimming, this book is for you. I'm not really into all of that but the book had its moments. Loved the pictures and the passion that Ms Sher has for swimming and it's very contagious!

[Alena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must have masochist tendencies to read books about swimming while I can't. These books make me want to jump in the water so badly.

This one was jumping around wildly thematically, her swimming across the Hellespont was the thread running through it.