Warum wir schwimmen

by Bonnie Tsui, Susanne Dahmann (Translator)

»Ein Juwel von einem Buch. Eine Hymne aufs Wasser und unseren Platz darin.« James Nestor, Autor des Bestsellers Breath. Atem Unsere Vorfahren schwammen, um zu überleben. Heute schwimmen wir in arktischen Gewässern oder sommerlichen Seen, weil wir Lust dazu haben oder die Herausforderung suchen. Schwimmen ist ein meditativer Sport in einer chaotischen Zeit. Schwimmen ist gesund, gemeinschaftsfördernd, existenziell. Jeder Mensch sollte es können. Ein Schwimmklub in Bagdad, moderne Samurai-Schwimmer in Japan, verpflichtender Schwimmunterricht in voller Kleidung in den Niederlanden, ein isländischer Fischer, dessen Physis der einer Robbe gleicht … Mit Bonnie Tsui tauchen wir ein in eine Welt des Schwimmens, die uns bisher verborgen blieb. »Eine großartige Geschichte. Ich liebe dieses Buch.« Christopher McDougall, Autor des Bestsellers Born to Run »Absolut wundervoll.« The New York Times »Warum wir schwimmen? Das Buch gibt eine Fülle von Antworten.« Der Tagesspiegel »Die US-amerikanische Autorin Bonnie Tsui erzählt in ihrem Buch ›Warum wir schwimmen‹ spannende Geschichten über diese uralte Fortbewegungsart.« Kristian Teetz, RND »Eine Perle unter den Sachbüchern, nicht nur für Menschen, die das Wasser lieben.« Radio Bremen Zwei

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

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2020

About the author

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year; it has been translated into ten languages and was a Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist in Science. Bonnie is also the author of American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Sarah and the Big Wave, a children’s book about the first woman to surf Mavericks and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. She is a consultant for the Hulu television series Interior Chinatown. Her new book, On Muscle, will be published in April 2025. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, the Mesa Refuge, and the Best American Essays series. She lives, swims, and surfs in the Bay Area. 

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

No spoilers....
I shared my own relationship with water....
Thankful to Bonnie Tsui for writing this perfectly beautiful book....
A tribute to water, and swimming.

Audiobook...narrated by Angie Kane.....
I was in heaven for six hours and 35 minutes.

Author Bonnie Tsui is an author I’d like to meet...'in the water'.

I’m a water baby. My kids are water babies. ( one of them was on the TV news with me at 2 weeks old as I demonstrated how she was 'water safe'), from swim teams, master swim classes, lots of swimming in Hawaii, playing in the ocean, personally swimming a mile 7 days a week during ‘both’ of my pregnancies- 4 years apart. In both cases I swam a mile in the morning of the same day I gave birth twice later in the evening,
to teaching aqua yoga (I’m certified to teach yoga and a Aqua yoga), to giving *Watsu* therapeutic sessions to others in our saline water garden pool, ( if you don’t know what *Watsu* is, visit google), to soaking in cold-plunges in ice cold winter mornings, to swimming in lakes - to warm water soaking while listening to Audiobooks, ( great treat during our pandemic lifestyle), to long distant swims at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe, to our Candle lightening-Community Friday Night Warm-Water-Soaks & Social, we hosted every week for 5 years at our house .....
My website had over 1,000 members....people from all over the world who visited us to ‘water-soak-and-meet others from 7pm till midnight.
Each week we had a waitlist of at least 20 people wanting to attend. We only wanted around 20 people each week.
People came from everywhere to soak in our pool....( most from all over the Bay Area, but many visitors from Europe, India, and other countries).
We didn’t allow drinking or drugs, no music, no ‘party’ atmosphere in the general sense, we told guests to eat dinner ‘before’ and leave their food at home. I didn’t want a food-feast gathering. ( I wanted real authentic enjoyable safe people-connections)....we had a wonderful time and some people fell in love and have gotten married from meeting in our pool.
Each Friday night was something we all looked forward too. We didn’t need to dress to impress....just bring a towel.
I put out a large fruit & nut platter each week which members came to expect. We had plenty of filtered drinking water. Nothing fancy...that was it.
We also told guests to ‘whisper-their-words’......( no loud or rude behavior or they would be asked to leave)
I had a donation bucket. We asked for $20 per person to help cover the costs of heating the water to 96 degrees. I never kept track of whether or not people paid. The honor system worked beautifully.
I wanted to create a relaxing social nourishing - gathering for people to come on Friday nights - at the end of a busy work week — to ‘relax’.
Our place was for people who generally preferred our quiet-water-social option, than the noisy bars.
Our events were non-sexual clothing optional gatherings. (yes, I spent a great deal of time clearing the rules with newbies)....each person ‘had’ to have a clearing phone call with me before they were allowed a first visit or even given the address to our house. I had rules...parking rules too.
People followed and respected them, or were never allowed back. Our guests did not get to bring ‘their’ guests. Each person was required to have that one clearing call with me first. It was the same for everyone.
But most of the time we had regulars. A community was growing.
I had ‘special’ events twice a summer....by invitation only: music events, women’s yoga retreat, massage weekend with a qualified trained masseuse, meditation retreats, and Full Moon Crystal bowls...sound healing events, ( absolutely beautiful evenings - in and out of the water)....
I wanted ‘everyone’ to feel safe in a clothing optional environment without being gawked at. I could write a book about those 5 years! Lol
Wonderful people and great stories.
And....it all stars with WATER....

People enjoyed water soaking here ( who had their own pools)...
Rain or shine.... water people took dips in the cold plunge, relaxed in dry heat of the sauna...used the outdoor shower....and got addicted to social connecting in water.
I could fill a water event at my house in an hour....that’s how in demand this water-pleasure social - non- eating- non drinking - no clothes necessary - respectful of other & whispering voices is.
Yep....we were ‘packed’ .....a highly desired evening by many.
Today....It’s more quiet around here. Paul and I needed to slow things down for medical and aging needs. But on occasion ( minus covid), we host events on holidays.

Why water? What attracts us?
“It’s the most omnipresent substance on earth, and along with air, the primary ingredient for supporting life as we know it”—quoted by Wallace J. Nicholas, Ph.D ( author of “Blue Mind”...a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and founder-co-director of Ocean Revolution)

“Why We Swim”, by Bonnie Kane....was everything I could ask for. I seriously want to invite Bonnie to be a guest at our house.

Bonnie told *great stories*....
And her book is wonderfully informative....great history about ‘everything’ water, (swimming, soaking, hot or cold water, competitive, relaxation, healing, and the great health benefits water is).

This is a self select book ....Water people/readers will find it on their own.
But....I also suggest this book for those aging....to consider adding water time for health and pleasure benefits.

It was sooo good...
One does not need to be a die hard competitive swimmer or gifted synchronize swimmer - or Esther Williams to enjoy this book ....
but there is a good chance, readers might finish the book wanting to take a water plunge.

5 strong stars from me....I loved everything about it!!!

[Anna Avian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off well. There were several real-life stories that were interesting to me and I enjoyed learning about the achievements of several people I hadn't heard of before. I wish topics like the science of how swimming impacts our mind and our body were discussed more than the personal life of the author, her family etc. I lost interest for the last 30% of the book because it started to feel repetitive and like a dreamy memoir.

[Nilguen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "Why We Swim", Bonnie Tsui introduces us into the magic of water, the possibility of quasi amphibious lifestyle of humans and the flow we ride in total mindfulness when swimming 🏊‍♀️.

I loved reading this non-fiction book for I have been swimming on a regular basis during my pregnancy and am eager to have my baby participate in swim courses, provided my idea resonates with him ;)

Bonnie Tsui does not only share private moments of her journey that shaped her into a keen swimmer, but also a well of valuable general knowledge of past and present times of notable people who turned to swimming.

Quintessentially, swimming helped them stay fit and develop razor-sharp focus by enjoying the luxury of solitude in water.

What I loved is that Tsui also weaved in poems dedicated to water and swimming to emphasize her affection to her activity. In addition, I truly appreciated the references in her book that listed a source of great interdisciplinary literature.

I can testify to the fact that swimming keeps me balanced as well and makes me feel light as air. I used to love walking and cycling, too, which had a similar effect on me as swimming, but swimming proved to be the best option during pregnancy.

What I was missing at times was the golden thread throughout Tsui´s book, hence 4 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exploration of a swimmer's relationship with water. The zone. The psychological effects. The health benefits. Water as a rehabilitation medium bordering on miraculous. Water as a source of inspiration, profound insight and unity with the world. That's quite a lot of discourse to shoulder but Bonnie Tsui pulled it off gracefully.
Q:
I swam through the divorce. I swam through college. I swam from Alcatraz, on a dare. I swam as rehab from knee surgery. I swam across a lake at my wedding. I swam to an Italian monastery and back, to help settle someone else’s bet. I swam through a miscarriage and on each of the days before my two sons were born. Three decades of swimming, of chasing equilibrium, have kept my head firmly above water. Swimming can enable survival in ways beyond the physical. (c)
Q:
Swimming is a way for us to remember how to play. (c)
Q:
Athletes often talk about “being in the zone,” where performance seems to happen at an automatic level. Researchers have described this as a psychological alteration of time that pulls your focus to the here and now—you’re so consumed by the activity, and so occupied with reading and reacting to external stimuli, that time seems to slow down, so that the present moment is expanded.
The psychologist Robert Nideffer, who first helped establish sports psychology as a discipline in the 1980s, has defined zone and flow as two similar, but distinct, immersive states—using zone to refer to the optimal state of physical performance and flow to refer to the optimal state of mental performance. People who are in the zone, he argues, experience time as slowed down. People who are in a flow state, by contrast, lose awareness of time, so that it seems to fly by. (c)
Q:
In its power to produce an altered state, Lynne Cox explains to me, swimming is like a drug. Sometimes we zero in on something with unparalleled lucidity, and we gain the ability to tune out the extraneous stuff; other times the focus is fuzzy, and one thought leads to another, without interruption. “Who needs psychedelics,” she says with a laugh, “when you can just go for a swim in the ocean?” (c)
Q:

[Woman Reading (is away exploring) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ☆

Swimming is the second most popular recreational activity in America, outranked only by walking.

Why We Swim is a broad survey of both the why and how humans swim. It is also a memoir of Tsui's personal and family experiences in the water and as such becomes her paean to swimming.

The body is engaged in full physical movement, but the mind itself floats, untethered.

We skip from thought to thought, and then there's a momentary nothingness. In that brief interlude, we are entirely liberated from the weight of thinking.

Anybody who is an avid swimmer can read this quote and nod in agreement. What else is there to say? Well, Tsui organized Why We Swim into five sections: survival, well-being, community, competition, and flow. Coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "flow" describes the experience when people are so utterly engaged by or immersed into an activity, that nothing else matters but the continued pursuit of this joy.

Why We Swim is not a comprehensive history of swimming, though Tsui included brief descriptions from many parts of the globe. Unsurprisingly, countries that are islands such as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Indonesia, and Japan have long relationships with their watery borders and thus with swimming. Japan's Nihon eiho, swimming as a martial art developed by the Samurai, fascinated me the most. Still taught today, the 400+ years old discipline was developed so that armored Samurai could swim across rivers and bays and simultaneously deploy their weapons. The Nihon eiho master put forth five slightly different motivations for swimming: survival, religion, fighting, competition, and the strength of mind and body.

When we swim today, writes [Damon] Young, that euphoria "comes from the passions of survival, without the desperate need to survive."

Tsui also interviewed many competitive swimmers and was quite taken by some's affinity for open waters, including inhospitable ones such as the Antarctic seas.

[Lynne Cox] equates being in the ocean "with an acute awareness of your life in the moment." Being in the pool, going back and forth, is not the same. "Being in the ocean," Cox tells me, "you could become part of the food chain any moment."

[To Tsui] that's the sublime: the awe and the terror, together. Those moments of panic, the electric flashes of fear, are elucidating, exhilarating.

I love swimming, which is why I read this with several fellow water enthusiasts as a NFBC BOTM and enjoyed it. Tsui's book resuscitated my own longing for the pool, as swimming has been put on ice by the pandemic. Tsui is accomplished enough as a swimmer to compete in US Masters Swimming, and she's inclined to be philosophical about her passion. Pursuit of flow suffices for me on the metaphysical level. I would have liked Why We Swim better if Tsui had included more science about humans' physical reactions with water and more about other amphibious people such as the haenyeo, the female free divers of Jeju Island.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Probably more philosophical than scientific but it had some scientific elements. A meditation. There is definitely a peace or calming effect to water. The act of swimming has a unique effect on me, more than other forms of vigorous exercise. I can spend time with myself, the water lifts the burdens both physical and emotional for those moments in time. This is really a good expression of the writers love for water and swimming. I wasn't in the right mindset to receive it fully. As I neared the end of the book, I was ready to be done. It began to get tedious (which is an accomplishment for such a short book). The book is recommended for those who enjoy swimming and want to ponder its meaning.

3.5 Stars rounded down because I was not sprinting to the finish

Read on kindle

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully. written. It’s lyrical.. It’s meaningful to me as someone who loved to swim (though I had a rocky road learning) and who has always loved the water. Water and trees, in my case. Even if swimming was not something that appeals to me I would have enjoyed this book.

It's a book to savor.

The structure of the book works well: the chapters, sections, text within chapters, literary and other references, people’s stories.

As a vegan I could have done without the present day abalone diving, fishing, etc. but even though I didn’t fully enjoy those parts this was still a 5 star book for me.

Great quote: (about swimming, and about books) “It’s like reading books—when you’re in it, you’re not in the world outside”

This book must have been great fun to write. I would have enjoyed writing it as much I did reading it. The interviews, travel, (thorough) research, swimming, and musing were intriguing and powerful.

I loved the San Francisco Bay Area parts local for me and the armchair traveling too.

Read for my real world book club.

Highly recommended!

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn't much what I thought it would be from the trailer. It's all about effusive feelings and almost romantic notions of our Earth's water. Of course there is some science and reality but it's minority of the whole.

This is memoir, happenstance story heard, memory type of celebration for a survivor of shipwreck, and numerous other cultural brand directions going on with the seas/ swimming being the focus. And the human affinities for sea close living and swimming within seas or various water bodies- that especially.

I found it ok but more a repetitive magazine type piece rather that a book. And some inklings for creature capture and desires for food supplies answered the question of the title. BUT, and the but is huge in some non-answered paths for this "swim loving". Since we are not mammals who know how to swim instinctively and must learn the skill.

Well, I'm sure an outlier here on the reading experience of Why We Swim. Some pieces (almost asides) I did speed read since they were the same exact thing repeated in dreamy type prose of personal affinity for swimming. I'm not sure what I expected but I thought I'd get far more science. How some diving cultures insured some physical characteristic changes in offspring was interesting. 2.5 stars but I cannot round this up. And I love swimming. At every age I have enjoyed swimming and still swim in a fresh water inland (small -only about 2200 acres) lake when the weather permits and a few times even when it doesn't. And many DO refrain because of so many critters and fauna within the lake who are doing the same thing. So it makes me wonder about how hugely this book seems to have been overrated. It might be the concrete cement pond swimmers predominant?

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a “fish” for as long as I remember, taking my first formal swim lessons at age eighteen months old and swimming regularly from the time I was two. As a kid I was always the first one in and last one out of any body of water that we visited, pool, ocean, lake, canal (that requires a narrative of its own). Regardless of the locale we traveled to, my parents had to compromise with me and include a pool or beach at every stop, even if at times I was the only family member to immerse in the inviting water. My fascination with water included a lifelong reverence of whales and dolphins and a preference for Jacques Cousteau’s Undersea World programming on PBS. Why do humans, land mammals, choose to swim? Journalist Bonnie Tsui, who happens to be a competitive swimmer, seeks to answer this question, visiting pools and beaches around the world seeking out the hows and whys humans choose to flock to earth’s blue spaces.

Bonnie Tsui comes from a family of swimmers. Her parents met at a pool, her father a lifeguard, her mother a swimmer. While their marriage didn’t last, the family’s happiest moments were spent by water. The Tsui family passed many an afternoon at Jones Beach off of Brooklyn or at any other Long Island beach. As a young girl, Tsui followed her brother into the waves and nearly drowned. I am not sure if this is a memory of a young girl frolicking in the waves or if the drowning nearly occurred. Tsui does not tell readers and it is left to our imagination. At age six and seven Tsui and her brother Andy were given the choice of competitive swimming or soccer as their primary sport; both chose the pool. Tsui’s husband Matt comes from swimmers as well, his maternal family owning property on Lake George in upstate New York. To commemorate their wedding, Bonnie and Matt swam the length of the lake the day after their wedding and return to do so each year. It is only natural that the couple would choose the coastal city of San Francisco to live and start a family, two boys who also started swimming at an early age. Tsui’s lifelong love of the water does not answer why humans swim; she traveled the globe seeking out scientists and psychologists to answer the pressing question.

Tsui’s travels took her to the Sahara desert where at one point a lake existed. Hundreds of thousands of years ago people lived around this lake and hunted and dove for food in its depths. Paleontologists found remains that attest to this. Many southeastern Asian cultures consist of people who dive to great depths seeking food or to make a living. The most famous of these are the ama, women from a southern Korean island who seek pearls and dive for hours. The Moken of Malaysia are known to follow the signs of the water and many survived the great tsunami that claimed countless others. People have been fishermen for millennia but many of them also swam among the fish and marine life; swimming was a means of survival that has lasted to present day. The most poignant of these stories is of an Icelandic man who swam for seven miles when his fishing trawler capsized in 1984. His story made him into a national hero, and a race is swam throughout the nation each year in his honor. Swimming safety has become a priority in this nation over the last forty years due to the bravery of one young man (being a linguist I will not attempt the spelling of his name so as not to botch it up; Icelandic is sadly not a language I am familiar with).

Scientists have told Tsui that swimming lowers blood pressure and helps arthritic patients to achieve a life of less pain. I have sensed this for years and feel most buoyant in a pool, all but demanding that we retire to a locale that is in close proximity to a pool or ocean. Swimming gave Kim Chambers a new lease on life; following a debilitating injury she began swimming competitively and completed the Open Oceans Seven, which includes swims around coasts for tens of hundreds of miles. Tsui also interviewed some of her favorite swimmers including Dana Torres and Michael Phelps to find out why they continued to swim competitively for many years after achieving olympic gold many times over. The theme: feeling at one with the water, never say die attitude, living for the moment, being at one with the water and completely unplugged. The thought of daydreaming and no gadgets is an added perk as to why I enjoy swimming as well. US peacekeeping forces in Iraq even started a swim club at a palace pool. Dozens of swimmers of all ability levels showed up. Some craved competition, others to learn how to swim, and others comradeship to make sense of the muck around them. That is why adults the world over join swim clubs and swim well into old age, for the thrill, enjoyment, and for added health benefits. Knowing this, living near a pool cannot come soon enough.

Where I live it is currently ten degrees outside. It would not stop members of Polar Bear clubs the world over from taking a plunge into freezing waters. Tsui has attempted this at times over her life and found it exhilarating. I prefer my water to be around eighty degrees so I am not quite there yet. Why We Swim is short, yet informative. I learned that everyone from Lord Byron to Julius Caesar to Oliver Sacks swam as a way of achieving inner zen. I am not sure if Bonnie Tsui is a swimmer who happens to be a journalist or a journalist who happens to be a swimmer. Regardless, I have come away from these vignettes feeling a greater comradeship with other humans who seek the serenity of the water, whether pool or beachside. I may not be able to swim like a salmon or last as long in the water as some of the swimmers that Tsui interviewed for this book, but I left with a greater appreciation of why humans love swimming. It is humans’ second popular activity on the globe, and with all the mental and physical benefits of swimming even to relax, what is not to love.

3.5 stars rounded up

[Maede · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب نامه ی عاشقانه ای به آب و لذت شناست
گذری در زندگی آدم هایی که با وجود آب و به خاطر آب زنده موندن و یا به زندگی برگشتند. نویسنده که خودش شیفته آب و شناست سعی می کنه که ریشه های این ارتباط عمیق بین انسان و آب رو درک کنه و از اثر عمیقی که بر ذهن و جسم می گذاره پرده برداره

هرچند که بعد از یک سوم اول ریتم کتاب کند شد و گاهی به تکرار کشیده شد، از شنیدن این زندگینامه های وابسته به آب لذت بردم و صدای دلنشین راوی کتاب صوتی من رو در خودش غرق کرد. برای من که آب و شنا هر دو نماد آرامش و مدیتیشن هستند، همذات پنداری با این روایت ها گاهی خیلی آسان بود

کتاب و صوتیش رو هم مثل همیشه اینجا می گذارم
M's Books

١۴٠٠/٣/١۴

[Kathryn S (Metaphors and Miscellanea) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, insightful, if occasionally a bit slow and redundant. Really resonated with me, as a former competitive swimmer.

Full review coming soon :)

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

The pandemic has stopped me and many others to swim in our usual spots. The loss is felt until now. I swim not only for fitness but also the feel of water surrounding me, the way it buoys you, the sense of freedom and weightlessness, untethered from technology (!) I could go on.

This book is a love letter to swimmers. Either you are one of those athlete-like swimmer swimming in lanes and could go lap after lap, or like me, a lazy swimmer who just enjoy the immersion and playing with water. The author interviewed some swimmers, survivors, swim club members, and athletes mostly, gathering lots of insights on what they think while swimming.

Some chapters are more scientific, among others about the benefits of swimming compared to other activities. I wish there are more like this but 40% of the book was more about personal reflection of the author, who seemed like an accomplished swimmer herself.

My fave chapter is about the samurai swimmers and their nihon eiho. Standing swimming while doing archery and other stuff, swimming while hands and feet are bound (shusoku garami), these are insane.

This is one of the NFBC's Book of the Month for February/March. Our discussion could be read here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Reading this book makes me want to cry since I really, really, REALLY miss swimming. Especially in the ocean. "Who needs psychedelics....when you can just go for a swim in the ocean?" Lynne Cox, QFT.

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounding up because I loved every wet moment! I used to swim daily, I adore being in water, albeit not the same wild waterways she pursues. I was lost in every drop of time.

[Ugvaja Maks · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Why We Swim (Audiobook), Bonnie Tsui explores the relationship that human beings have with water. She dives into the subject more than superficially (pun intended), by investigating the theme of swimming that is not just a sport, but also a transformative experience that is shared among human beings as a species. Using a fascinating and unique blend of science, history and personal stories, the book looks into how you can receive mental, physical and emotional benefits from swimming.

Tsui’s approach in this book is to illuminate her audience on how swimming is bigger than just swimming. She creatively discusses how therapeutic it can be, the richness that is found in the communities that engage in swimming, and the universal human connection to water. The benefit of plunging into water and feeling the unknown is compared to the camaraderie that swimming communites share across the globe. Through Why We Swin, Tsui celebrates the power to which water heals, connects, and inspires.

For the sports enthusiast, the one who studies the mind in psychology, and the person who finds curiosity in cultural anthropolgy, Tsui will take you on a journey through the lens of human nature and our connection as humans to water. To engage in Why We Swim, Tsui and her audience will invite the reader, guest, or novist to think about their own connection to water and how swimming has shaped their lives deepening your human experience.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal and historical tour of swimming. This book really touches on why we swim, and surprise, the reasons are many. From survival to competition to therapy to health... even for creativity, Bonnie Tsui really reminded me why I wish I was swimming right now instead of being quarantined in my room.

But I've always been a terrible swimmer. It started with swimming lessons as a kid, but it never came intuitively to me as it did so many others. I saw them zip through the water with barely a motion. Meanwhile, though I was getting the same lessons, I was the one thrashing in place.

A few years ago I decided to take up swimming again, and this time I wasn't aiming to be a good swimmer, just a comfortable swimmer. I changed my reasons for why I wanted to swim. I wanted the peacefulness of the water. I didn't want to feel like I am constantly battling for breath.

So I re-taught myself using several online resources with that in mind, and now I am decent. I am not fast, but I can move relaxedly through water (and I finally swam my first mile!). And the water is somewhere I long to be because I feel at once more in my body and also out of my body. The sensations, the sun making patterns in the water, the sounds coming to me while underwater.

If you also have a difficult relationship with swimming based in past experience, know that you can change that relationship by reprioritizing what's important to you about swimming. The reasons can be many. In fact, just floating on water can be therapy, a form of meditation. Overall, I really liked this book. It was kind of an easy pleasurable read, but sprinkled with many interesting facts and angles that I hadn't known before also.

[Lisa Cobb Sabatini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won an Advance Reading Copy of Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui from Goodreads.

Pardon the pun, but the writing in Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui is so fluid that the reader feels as if he is slipping into the prose as a swimmer slips into water. Tsui takes readers to waters around the world, including oceans, lakes, pools, and more. She ushers the reader through time, stopping at a desert to visit an ancient sea and reliving the final seconds at Olympic meets. She speaks with amateurs, professionals, scientists, and survivors. Insight is derived from experience and ideas about life are floated from great depths of feeling. Readers are inspired, buoyed, and moved by the stories of swimmers, and come away with a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the water of our world.

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected more “Born to Run” and less “Beethoven to his Immortal Beloved” but found myself pleasantly surprised by the latter. This is not about why we swim. This book is a love letter to swimming. A swooning note to a hobby, a sport, a state of mind.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are swim stories from around the globe and even through history. Most involve the personal involvement of author Bonnie Tsui. She is a life-long swimmer that understands how swimmers think and feel.

The first major story about an Icelandic survivor of a fishing boat that went under was inspiring. His couple other crewmates drowned, but this humble guy with literally thick skin made it through very cold water back to shore. (6 hours, 3+ miles, 28 deg water) He became a hero in Iceland, and motivated communities to add swimming pools everywhere. Self-deploying life rafts in boats are now standard. It is a heartwarming tale, and typical of the content of this book.

We hear about her San Francisco Bay swimming, where we meet Kim. Kim was not a swimmer, but fell on some stairs and injured her leg so badly that it was almost amputated. After a year of rehab learning to walk again, she added swimming. Cold water seemed to bring life back to nerves faster than doctors expected. Kim went on to become the most famous swimmer you probably don't know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Cha...
She became the sixth person to complete the Oceans Seven.
The Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven channel swims:
1. English Channel - 33.8 km (21 miles) between England and France
2. Catalina Channel - 32.3 km (20 miles) between Catalina Island and the California mainland
3. Strait of Gibraltar - 14.4 km (9 miles) between Spain and Morocco
4. North Channel - 34.5 km (21.4 miles) between Ireland and Scotland
5. Kaiwi Channel - 42 km (26 miles) between Molokai and Oahu
6. Cook Strait - 22.5 km (14 miles) between the North and South Island of New Zealand
7. Tsugaru Strait - 19.5 km (12.1 miles) between Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan

In 2015, she became the first woman to swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge – a distance of about 30 miles.

Lots of tid-bit facts are interspersed throughout the book: Ben Franklin invented the hand paddles for swimming. The first man to cross the English Channel later died swimming across the Niagra River at the base of the falls.

The Bagdad swim team with lessons for everyone was very inspiring to hear.

I never knew about Samurai Swimming.

Tara Torres triple come-out-of-olympic-retirement story is incredible. The 41 year old mother crushed the competition, winning silver by 0.01 in a race dominated by girls less than half her age - the 50 free. This was in Beijing 2008, at her fifth Olympics.

My only minor nag in the book is that the author speaks often of the fear in swimming. Many people drown so it should be respected. But these are usually non-swimmers that get caught in flood catastrophes. The author spoke how she regularly threw-up in the bathroom before swimming races. As a life-long swimmer my self, and a coach, I've known athletes with this uneasiness, but it is extremely rare. If you 'do your homework' prior to the meet, you should feel 'excited' to prove that the hard work is about to pay off. Fear kept being repeated briefly, but regularly throughout the book. I do not like normalizing fear of swimming.

If you're a swimmer, you will love every story. I swim a couple miles every day, so I'm in the 'love' camp. If you are not a swimmer, you will hear inspiring words that can move you close to tears.

4.5 round up.

Chapters:
Survival
1. Stone Age Swimming
2. You’re a Land Animal
3. Lessons from a Sea Nomad
The Human Seal
Well-Being
5. The Water Cure
6. Seawater in Our Veins
7. Open Water, Meet Awe
Community
8. Who Gets to Swim
9. A Mini United Nations
10. Chaos and Order
Competition
11. The Spash and Dash
12. How to Swim Like an Assassin
13. Sharks and Minnows
14. Ways of the Samurai
Flow
15. A Religious Exercise
16. The Liquid State
17. From One Swimmer to Another

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonnie Tsui is a lifelong swimmer. She shares her passion for swimming in this book, which is part memoir and part history. Tsui inserts anecdotes of her experiences with swimming. She recounts the history of human swimming, going back to cave drawings. She includes a bit of scientific research. The book explores the appeal of swimming, including mental and physical health benefits. It describes the concept of “flow” and how it is achieved through swimming. It includes accomplishments of Olympic swimmers, endurance swimmers, and “extreme” swimmers. Tsui travels the world, finding examples of how swimming is viewed in various cultures. There are survival stories, particularly one Icelandic fisherman who survived six hours in icy cold water while swimming to safety. It is full of fascinating information.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book! An original idea, and the writing style is fluid and sparkling - like water. She explores the significance of swimming across many cultures and times (samurais, Icelandic fishermen, prisoners escaping from Alcatraz) as well as the physiology and psychology of it. My one complaint is that the chapter on who gets to swim felt like an afterthought, although it was in the middle of the book. I would've liked a bit more on segregation and the reasons Black Americans have lower rates of swimming skills and higher rates of drowning than Whites, and for awareness of this issue to be integrated into other chapters.

[thrisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

obviously a self-indulgent book lol. thought it would be science-y and go into, you know, why we swim, but it was mostly personal stories that got repetitive pretty quickly

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are books about baseball and cricket and football and golf, but books about swimming are not many. Here, Bonnie Tsui tells us of her lifelong love of the sport while also providing a history of our fascination with water, along with some of swimming’s oddities.

Swimming is, by our human definition, a constant state of not drowning.

Life came from the water and perhaps this is why humans are always drawn to blue seas. Even in a time of flooded coastlines and climate change, we still want to be near water. It’s in us. Lord Byron swam the Dardanelles in 1810, even though he was born lame. Brave swimmers take boats out to the Farallon Islands off the California coast, “the Devil’s Teeth”, just so they can jump off in the dark, never knowing if they may be heading straight into the jaws of a Great White shark. In winter, it’s all about the various global swim clubs where almost naked swimmers plunge into ice, just to be aquatic Polar Bears, human-style. Swimming is actually the second-most popular recreational activity in the United States, only behind the far simpler form of walking.

The salt of those ancient seas is in our blood, its lime is in our bones. Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments, or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.

Swimming is also excellent for aging bodies. We never “youthen”, we can only “age”, and the ability to be in a pool or ocean or lake or river provides the human body with the coolness and buoyancy that reduces inflammation without the land-based impacts of running or walking. I can attest to this. In 2020, the Year of Hell, I tore up my foot. There was no way-in-heck I was going to a hospital or clinic, not with the pandemic raging. Instead, every morning at 5 AM, I went to the local pool, even when I didn’t want to go. Even when it was frosty and the winds were blowing. Once I was in the water, the pain would start to recede. After finishing laps, and I am not a decent swimmer by any means, I would then spend thirty minutes in the deep end, just treading water. It was this activity that brought my foot back to form again and I could actually see the swelling and redness go away a little bit at a time. I now know I had broken my foot, yet it never saw a cast or a stressed-out urgent care practitioner. Yet another benefit of the Great Pandemic.

In Japan, ancient texts tell us that swimming in ice-cold water teaches perseverance and floating leads to serenity. This explains the chapter on Samurai Swimming. That’s right, Samurais who swim, fully enveloped in armor! Nihon eiho is a Japanese swimming martial art, requiring a different way to move in the water. This was an inspiring chapter, as I immediately put some of the ideas into play, such as relying on my torso and legs, instead of my arms, to keep my head above the water. Inspiring.

I really liked this book and the way it’s been put together. Each chapter functions as an essay on a different topic with the end of each chapter leading logically into the subject of the next chapter. The writing is fluid and I especially loved the personal remembrances of the writer. As a child who grew up surfing the waves without knowing how to (officially) swim, I felt a kinship with the author. I know what it’s like to be enveloped in a sneak wave as a child, unable to get out, only to be rescued by a sibling. I know what it’s like to come home from a hard day at work, hitting the beach in the dark, with no lifeguards or other humans around, hoping the lifeform touching me under the water is not going to eat me. I know what it’s like to detest an enclosed swimming center, feeling claustrophobic until I can get into a pool that is open to the elements.

But especially, I loved Bonnie Tsui’s description of the thrill of knowing a thermos of hot ginger tea was waiting for her after a cold swim in the San Francisco Bay. I can definitely relate.

Book Season = Spring (green silk seas)

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is essentially this: humans, for all our land-bound state may be, are (metaphorically) amphibians. We are drawn towards the water, and we adapt to it.

For instance, in the Philippines, an ethnic group known as the Bajau are so closely involved with water that even toddlers are expert divers. Interestingly, science has shown that they have spleens that are 50% larger than average people, which is significant: when humans dive underwater, the spleen contracts as part of the mammalian diving reflex, shooting its supply of oxygenated red blood cells into circulation, slowing the heart rate and constricting blood vessels. Marine mammals, such as seals, have disproportionately large spleens. The Bajau’s likewise oversized spleens allow them to dive much longer and more efficiently than most. This is due to natural selection; Bajau people with larger spleens are more likely to survive to adulthood and have children.

Other water-adaptive characteristics are acquired skills. Free-diving sea nomads, like the Moken in Thailand, spend so much time underwater that its members end up having underwater vision twice as sharp as most people, able to navigate with ease where most of us would see only a blur. Unlike the Bajau, however, this skill can be acquired by any child who spends enough time underwater.

Another example: an Icelandic fisherman, Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, survived a shipwreck that killed his fellow sailors, surviving 6 hours in 41 degree water over almost four miles, and another 3 hours dredging across lava fields in freezing weather, because of a strange biological quirk: he was insulated by fourteen millimeters of fat all around his body- two or three times the normal human thickness, and more solid. It kept him warm, buoyant, and able to keep swimming— like a seal. Today, he is considered a national hero and figurehead of Iceland.

Even the more average human is closely tied to the aquatic world. Human fetuses inhale and exhale amniotic fluid in utero, helping to form the lungs. We have gill slits that become parts of our jaws and respiratory tracts, evolutionary relics of aquatic, gill-breathing vertebrates. Seawater is so similar in mineral content to human blood plasma that our white blood cells can survive and function in it for some time - almost as if we have seawater circulating in our veins.

In addition to examining the biology of it, the author explores the psychological aspect of our love of water- starting with herself. The author is a lifelong swimmer— on the swim team as a child, then swimming to recover from knee surgery, while pregnant with two sons, and even swimming out to Alcatraz Island. She talks to Kim Chambers, one of the best marathon swimmers in the world today (she started swimming as an adult after nearly losing her leg to amputation, after the most horrifyingly everyday accident: she tripped while wearing high heels, and fell down the stairs outside her apartment). Of swimming in the deep ocean, Kim says this:

“The restlessness of the seascape is captivating. You don’t know what’s swimming underneath you. The seals are all around, and the birds. You know you’re not supposed to be there, and a shark could come out of nowhere. It’s tantalizing to be on that edge, to be that connected.”

While it’s a lovely meditation on humanity’s kinship with the water, and as someone who loves to swim, I found it pleasant to think about - but I also felt like this book was incomplete somehow. It didn’t lead anywhere, it didn’t quite go where it promised to go. I’m at a loss to describe what I mean by that - I don’t even know where I wanted it to go, but I know it didn’t satisfy, despite being an otherwise worthy read.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid swimmer, I’m always in search of books that will capture the feeling of being in the water. Tsui beautifully touches on all of the elements that water evokes for humans, in a style that is prose, memoir, and biography of some of her swimming heroes. What I liked is that it highlights both the collective and individual experience of swimming and how we simultaneously both belong in and are foreign to the water. Especially poignant are the scenes of open water swimming, with all of its dangers but inspiring sense of awe.

My major issue with the book is it’s attempt to briefly cite the groups that have been historically excluded from swimming (namely, Black communities) which is set in the middle of a chapter about troops coming together in Iraq at a swimming pool (while, you know, essentially colonializing the country). I love the portrayal of the swim instructor in the chapter but as someone who has seen the stark disparities between white and POC children in swimming ability, I couldn’t help but think about the families and children that would never be offered the same opportunity to learn to swim.

Even with that said, this is a very quotable book that I will love to gift to people I have shared the pool with. I highly recommend it to anyone that finds tranquility and challenge in the water. Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC, all opinions are my own.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swim for fun and because it’s a life skill, but I wish I was better at it. There was a lot of information in this book that gave me new reasons to want to swim better.

[Kate Causey · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful mix of memoir, biography, anthropology, sociology, history, storytelling about humans and water. I love swimming!

[Jovi Ene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toți medicii îmi spun că cel mai bun remediu pentru bolile mele este înotul. Nu știu să înot (și nici nu mă pasionează apa) și îmi tot spun că de undeva tot trebuie să încep, inclusiv prin citirea unei cărți care să aibă ca îndemn înotul și care să laude, dacă mai este nevoie, această tehnică de supraviețuire și de competitivitate umană. Iar Bonnie Tsui face tocmai asta, descriind înotul din cinci mari și importante perspective - supraviețuire, stare de bine, comunitate, competiție și stare de „flux”. Principalele motive pentru care trebuie să citim această carte sunt cele pe care, consider eu, se concentrează autoarea americană: istoricul înotului și cei mai importanți atleți și promotori ai acestuia (de la supraviețuitorul islandez Guðlaugur Friðþórsson până la recordmanul Michael Phelps); binefacerile înotului, dacă nu pentru fizic (pentru că pe acestea le cunoaștem), mai ales pentru psihic și pentru refaceri terapeutice din perioade complicate, traumatice...
Dacă voi începe să înot după această carte? Nu știu, dar sper să o fac într-o zi.

[Samuel Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5 for me? Despite being impressed by Tsui's romanticizing of swimming, I can't say I'm now particularly drawn toward the sport. I appreciate her passion for it, but the nature of the subject itself feels irrelevant to me.

A harsh interpretation of this book is a hodgepodge of stuff related to swimming: early human history, various anecdotes from the author and others, positive and negative health effects (physical and mental), swimming as a social sport or as a competitive one, etc. A more generous interpretation is that it's view of the world and ourselves through the lens of swimming.

The meaning Tsui derives from swimming left an impression on me because I respect people with passions for something. Much like modern art, we can derive a lot of meaning from seemingly mundane things. I think it's that process of deriving meaning that matters, rather than any inherent objective meaning, but I suppose this is getting too philosophical.

I wonder if I'd give it another star had I read the actual book instead of listening to the audiobook. Not that the audiobook is bad, but it reminded me why I dislike audiobooks. I can't give my full attention to a book I listen to so I find myself zoning out or getting distracted and miss details. But if I can comfortably miss or forget a bunch of information from the book, then why read it in the first place? This opinion is independent of the book itself, but it's difficult for me personally to dissociate my feelings toward this work from my feelings toward audiobooks in general (sorry Tsui).

If you're an avid swimmer, definitely give this book a try. If you have no interest in swimming particularly but love reading about people's passions, this book might be a good fit for you, too. For everyone else, I'm not sure whether you'd like it or not?

[Stephen Kiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an odd thing, when you examine it, how humanity is drawn to water -- and not only the water's edge, but into it. Across it. Under it. Deep in it.
Here is a delightful and informative examination of that impulse, less about deep sea diving or big wave surfing than the ingredients of swimming and how they contribute to emotional and physical well-being, how water is an unfriendly habitat we nonetheless can mostly master, and what sort of people become the champions of swimming.
Charlotte Epstein, for example, a court stenographer who in 1903 formed the Women's Swimming Association. By 1920 she was managing the US Olympic Team's female swimmers, who were collecting gold medals by the handful. She also personally trained a woman who went on to set 29 national and world records, won three medals in the '24 olympics, and swam the English Channel with a time two hours faster than the men's record.
Epstein also had a hand in popularizing the stroke we now know as "freestyle," a faster-kick version of the Australian crawl and the way that most people in western civilization now swim.
If learning about that sort of innovation pleases you, or if you are a creature of the water every chance you get (I fit both of these descriptions), you will find this book a light, quick, and charming read.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! Being in "Shelter-in-Place" and my pool closed - plus having a broken arm so I couldn't go in the pool anyway - loved remembering what I love so much about swimming.
I was on a swim team from age 5 to high school, then Masters swimming in my 30's, now old lady water aerobics with some lap swimming. She really captures so much about the experience. Also loved reading all the information about various big name swimmers. Bonnie Tsui lives in San Francisco - my turf - I swam in the Fleishacker pool, and so many other local references. I'm not an ocean swimmer, but loved reading about the experience. I'd like to say I won't complain anymore about getting into cold water, but - I probably will. I've already bought this book for three other swimmers in my family. Not sure a non-swimmer could get into it as much as I did but seriously loved this book. I may read it again - especially because my husband bought the hardcopy to give to me for my birthday not knowing I already listened to it on audible. I can either fake read it again, or real read it - I choose the latter!