What do you think?
Rate this book
The Craft of Bouldering
From the author of The Zen of Climbing, this enlightening and essential book is an inspired collection of concise essays and reflections on the art of bouldering.
More than a sport, bouldering is a craft that demands equal fine-tuning of the mind and body. It calls for total commitment and attentiveness.
Climber, writer, and philosopher Francis Sanzaro brings the discipline into conversation with other sports and arts including architecture, dance, skateboarding, painting, parkour, martial arts, and gymnastics.
Sanzaro shows how the pursuit of bouldering is akin to developing a philosophy—something that can be nurtured and strengthened like a muscle, benefiting both body and soul. He explores all aspects of the craft and gives boulderers a voice of their own.
More than a sport, bouldering is a craft that demands equal fine-tuning of the mind and body. It calls for total commitment and attentiveness.
Climber, writer, and philosopher Francis Sanzaro brings the discipline into conversation with other sports and arts including architecture, dance, skateboarding, painting, parkour, martial arts, and gymnastics.
Sanzaro shows how the pursuit of bouldering is akin to developing a philosophy—something that can be nurtured and strengthened like a muscle, benefiting both body and soul. He explores all aspects of the craft and gives boulderers a voice of their own.
- GenresNonfictionClimbing
224 pages, Paperback
Published October 22, 2024
17 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Francis Sanzaro
10 books5 followersFrancis Sanzaro (Ph.D., Religion), is the author of three books whose genres range from sexuality to technology to athletics, and he is currently hard at work on a thriller. He has appeared on BBC World News, and in their international podcast series, BBC Radio. His essays, poetry and fiction have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Review, The Scotsman, Huffington Post, The Baltimore Post Examiner, Continental Philosophy Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, among a dozen others. His books are The Infantile Grotesque: Pathology, Sexuality and a Theory of Religion, (2016); The Boulder: A Philosophy for Bouldering (2013); and Society Elsewhere: Why the Gravest Threat to Humanity Will Come From Within (2018). He is Editor of Rock and Ice and Ascent magazines. More at Fsanzaro.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 19, 2025
So good. Underlined so much. Will reread again and again whenever I need some psyche.
June 4, 2025
This one took me a while to get through, I had to read it in chunks.
While physically small, it is a very dense book with very big and broad philosophical ideas about bouldering, broken down in various ways that blend together and can be hard to separate.
It is well-written, though the structure struck me as a bit loose. But it has some fantastic insights into the craft and art of bouldering, and what it means beyond scrambling up some stone.
I’ll admit that there was a lot I didn’t 100% fully grasp, but, it does help me reframe and re-contextualize bouldering and my appreciation of it. I can see myself reading this again and again, if nothing else but to glean inspiration and mindset from it.
While physically small, it is a very dense book with very big and broad philosophical ideas about bouldering, broken down in various ways that blend together and can be hard to separate.
It is well-written, though the structure struck me as a bit loose. But it has some fantastic insights into the craft and art of bouldering, and what it means beyond scrambling up some stone.
I’ll admit that there was a lot I didn’t 100% fully grasp, but, it does help me reframe and re-contextualize bouldering and my appreciation of it. I can see myself reading this again and again, if nothing else but to glean inspiration and mindset from it.
Read
January 3, 2026"We cannot boulder without a rock, and the stone cannot boulder without us. Movement is defined by the alchemy of these two bodies- rock and flesh- and to understand it properly we must view if from various angles." (20)
The book had some interesting points about the nature of bouldering and unique comparisons to other sports and art forms. However, it was a little too abstract and pedantic to really grab a hold of my attention.
The book had some interesting points about the nature of bouldering and unique comparisons to other sports and art forms. However, it was a little too abstract and pedantic to really grab a hold of my attention.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews