Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Why we swim / Bonnie Tsui.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2020Copyright date: © 2020Edition: First editionDescription: 277 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781616207861
  • 1616207868
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
SURVIVAL -- Stone Age swimming -- You're a land animal -- Lessons from a sea nomad -- The human seal -- WELL-BEING -- The water cure -- Seawater in our veins -- Open water, meet awe -- COMMUNITY -- Who gets to swim? -- A mini United Nations -- Chaos and order -- COMPETITION -- The splash and dash -- How to swim like an assassin -- Sharks and minnows -- Ways of the samurai -- FLOW -- A religious exercise -- The Liquid State -- From one swimmer to another.
Summary: "Bonnie Tsui looks at our love affair with the water, from evolution to mythology, from survival and well-being, from community swim clubs to competitive races, and she goes around the world to explore its significance in many cultures"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 797.21 T882 Available 33111009638814
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 797.21 T882 Available 33111009005782
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020

A Best Book of the Season: BuzzFeed * Bustle * San Francisco Chronicle

A Best Book of the Year: NPR's Book Concierge * Washington Independent Review of Books



"A fascinating and beautifully written love letter to water. I was enchanted by this book." --Rebecca Skloot, bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks An immersive, unforgettable, and eye-opening perspective on swimming--and on human behavior itself.



We swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. We swim for pleasure, for exercise, for healing. But humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now, in the twenty-first century, swimming is one of the most popular activities in the world.



Why We Swim is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein's palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times contributor Bonnie Tsui, a swimmer herself, dives into the deep, from the San Francisco Bay to the South China Sea, investigating what it is about water that seduces us, despite its dangers, and why we come back to it again and again.

Includes bibliographical references.

SURVIVAL -- Stone Age swimming -- You're a land animal -- Lessons from a sea nomad -- The human seal -- WELL-BEING -- The water cure -- Seawater in our veins -- Open water, meet awe -- COMMUNITY -- Who gets to swim? -- A mini United Nations -- Chaos and order -- COMPETITION -- The splash and dash -- How to swim like an assassin -- Sharks and minnows -- Ways of the samurai -- FLOW -- A religious exercise -- The Liquid State -- From one swimmer to another.

"Bonnie Tsui looks at our love affair with the water, from evolution to mythology, from survival and well-being, from community swim clubs to competitive races, and she goes around the world to explore its significance in many cultures"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha