pickFinished this up on audio today. It was pretty interesting. I definitely learned some things I never knew before
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Why We Swim | 
pickFinished this up on audio today. It was pretty interesting. I definitely learned some things I never knew before
so-soPretty good! Got a little long, and I feel like the last chapter could have been wrapped up more quickly. Makes me want to start swimming though!
⭐️: 3.5/5
Loving this nonfiction that covers all aspects of why we swim (historically and scientifically) bringing in literature and music and personal stories. I will miss my summer swims!
Wow. I found this #ThoughtfulThursday super challenging, @MoonWitch94 — & fun!
After much deliberation, I‘ve decided to keep:
🏖 The Beach (I live in The Ocean State)
🏊 Swimming Pool
🍦 Ice Cream
📖 Paperbacks
Nixing iced coffee & camping were especially painful. 🥺
pickLoved it. Very special book that took a subject that is so common and shined new light on it to show different traditions, purposes, and ways to love water. All while telling a compelling personal narrative. Totally had to find my way to the pool after reading it.
pickI love the water but I‘m not a swimmer. I‘m competent but not graceful or powerful. Tsui‘s audiobook made me wish I was! She writes from a personal perspective & from a place of deep research. She writes about water as ritual, as a portal, as a place (one of the only places left) where you‘re forced to disconnect, & of water as a place of connection (to others & to the natural world). She writes beautifully - with intelligence & passion. 👇🏻
Have possibly never seen anything more perfect in my entire life.
“Summer Bathers” by Olivia Steen
https://oliviasteenart.bigcartel.com/product/summer-bathers-print
pick3.75 stars. My Literati atlas obscura book club June pick. Took me a month to read it but I did! It‘s part memoir part travelogue - all having to do with what it means to swim. Language is pretty but it didn‘t wow me. However I‘m not mad I read it either :)
The Atlas Obscura Literati book club pick. I love me some memoirs…
Reading Envy Podcast Episode 217: Lesson Plan with Kim @Kboltz
Kim may have the opposite reading life from Jenny, but how else would books on baseball ever feature on the podcast? From debut novels to space, history to swimming, we discuss books we've read and liked recently.
Listen and subscribe:
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy217
pickWhy do we swim? Tsui looks at swimming for survival in cold Icelandic waters, swimming for competition (briefly) with my favorite swimmer Dara Torres, swimming for sanity, and swimming for inspiration (like Byron).
She talked to an army officer that started swimming lessons in Iraq that mixed military, civilians, and locals. She met people that had completed the swimming version of the 7 summits. And she shared the reasons she swims. #audiobook
pickI loved this combination history of swimming and memoir. The narrator was excellent, and I learned a lot about swimming history. Did you know there‘s such a thing as samurai swimming and swimming martial arts? Neither did I. I finished this book and started Matthew McConaughey‘s Greenlights. #audiowalk
So far she‘s talked about swimmers whose main interest isn‘t competition or they‘re open water swimmers, so I‘m not familiar with them. Today‘s chapter was Olympians — Dara Torrres, Katie Ledecky, and Michael Phelps. I‘ve been watching them swim for years, so I‘m familiar with them. Night time walk. #audiowalk
Weirdly, I wasn‘t in the mood for fiction today, so I‘m listening to this because it‘s my car book so it was already downloaded to my phone. It‘s different than what I thought it would be. I was expecting a book all about how swimming makes us feel better mentally; instead, Tsui writes about evolution and interviews different swimmers, including bits of her own life in the book as well. #audiowalk
pickLoved this book....if you swim or love the water you have to read this book.
Two new books today - one about the meditative nature of water - another about crime! Perfect pairing! 🤣🤣
pickLake Michigan was the perfect place to finish my #doublespin book. Why do we swim is a big question, so this book could be so many volumes, and there was something incomplete about it. Nevertheless, it was water to my soul, which was missing swimming so much. Swimming is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice. I loved the stories and reflections, and will be checking out all the references provided.
I finished 3 books and am about to finish another from July‘s #Bookspin list. I will be using the same list for the next BookSpin, with the 4 additions. Since I didn‘t get a bingo this month, I won‘t be participating in August‘s #bookspinbingo but will continue using the card to cross off some more of my TBR until I do get a Bingo!
I‘m pretty sure pasta parties were one of my favorite parts of being on the swim team in high school. Frozen hair was not. This book is speaking to some good parts in my life. [Pic: post-swim meet we ate a lot too 😁🍰🏊🏼♀️]
After having just finished The Lido, I found my own local Lido that almost no one knows about. I‘m now on to my #doublespin book, an interesting sociological look at swimming, giving me lots to think about while I swim laps. 🏊🏼♀️📖
“One night over dinner, my husband tells me a story he heard about a boat in the North Atlantic and a man who should have drowned.” And quite a story, it was.
"Water is in a forever state of flux. To swim is to witness metamorphosis, in our environment, in ourselves. To swim is to accept all the myriad conditions of life."
I have been a swimmer for enjoyment, for competition, for performance, for community, and for fitness. Nowadays, the pool is even more of a sanctuary than ever.
#quarantinereads
I am working off of last month‘s #BookSpin list, with 3 new replacements for what I finished in May, listed at the bottom. I seem to have gotten my reading mojo back, so hoping to complete a #DoubleSpin in June as well.
This is my #CovidCollection - most of the books that I‘ve acquired during our Stay at Home order. My reading was slow, but supporting local bookstores was a great excuse to add to my bookshelves. I like this stack because of the things it represents - many are #blameitonLitsy purchases. Some are middle level reads, reflecting my need for simpler stories to keep my focus, and a couple reflect the thing I miss most right now - swimming.
pickReading Why We Swim is the closest I‘ve been to a body of water since before California‘s shelter in place order. 17 essays sorted into 5 themes about water, why it seduces us (and terrifies us), its dangers and joys, and why we keep going back for more. Swim teams, Japanese samurai swimmers, Olympic swimmers, swimming in war zones, open water and pool swimming. A journalistic memoir of our fascination and addiction to swimming.
I‘ve been missing my daily walk to the pool - so intrigued to delve into why we like to swim!
https://altaonline.com/bonnie-tsui-swim-alta-asks/
pickThis non-fiction book is so readable and fascinating. We as humans are inexplicanly drawn to water even though we're the only creatures that can't naturally swim. This examines that and tells inspiring stories of people who have accomplished open water swims. There was even an Icelandic guy who survived swimming 6 hours in the Artic after a boat crash because his body/fat ratio was like that of a seal. I'm not a swimmer, but still loved this!
