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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
Interesting look into the world of competitive swimming. The author's artwork and photos of her swimwear collection were a great way to break up the writing.
For anyone who does not swim, this was a good description of the swimmer's routine and what occurs during meets.
I could relate to the adult fear of open water. Everyone assumes if you can swim you love water in any format. Not so. Chlorine provides security. Open water leaves you exposed to the elements.
I liked the author's artistic interpretations. I gave it two stars because some items were left incomplete. I saw the vignettes described as disjointed and I wholeheartedly agree.
I could relate to the adult fear of open water. Everyone assumes if you can swim you love water in any format. Not so. Chlorine provides security. Open water leaves you exposed to the elements.
I liked the author's artistic interpretations. I gave it two stars because some items were left incomplete. I saw the vignettes described as disjointed and I wholeheartedly agree.
Yes, this is exactly like swimming. The isolation, the pain, the drifting, the weightlesness, the hunger, the cold, the numbing repetition. Really makes you wonder what is enjoyable about the sport, and it seems the author herself never quite reaches a conclusion: perhaps the tight control and discipline, the familiarity, the sensation of feeling your body leave its regular physical constrictions.
I really enjoyed the thoughtful overlap of visual arts and swimming. I wish I could experience both of those things right now.
Interesting to pair this book with Bravey by Alexi Pappas. Both talk about the reality of pain in sport, something I wish I had learned to confront and deal with better when I was in high school. I don't remember my coaches talking about dealing with the psychological aspect of pain--funny since it completely consumes the majority of every single practice and the hours leading up to practice. I think my performance would have improved if I had figured out a better pain game plan. Both books also talk about athletes keeping up outward appearances even when you know they are hurting, all stoicism and tight lips. Maybe running and swimming attract the sort of personalities that logic away the complaints, "Quitting is not an option and complaining is a waste of energy." Ha. Maybe coaches carry that mentality too, and that's why no one ever really talked about it.
I really enjoyed the thoughtful overlap of visual arts and swimming. I wish I could experience both of those things right now.
Interesting to pair this book with Bravey by Alexi Pappas. Both talk about the reality of pain in sport, something I wish I had learned to confront and deal with better when I was in high school. I don't remember my coaches talking about dealing with the psychological aspect of pain--funny since it completely consumes the majority of every single practice and the hours leading up to practice. I think my performance would have improved if I had figured out a better pain game plan. Both books also talk about athletes keeping up outward appearances even when you know they are hurting, all stoicism and tight lips. Maybe running and swimming attract the sort of personalities that logic away the complaints, "Quitting is not an option and complaining is a waste of energy." Ha. Maybe coaches carry that mentality too, and that's why no one ever really talked about it.
Watery, shimmery, blurry memoir of growing up a swimmer. Loved the mix of adolescent an adult, hopes and memories.
Not what I expected, but a relaxing read. Now want to swim in the pools at the hotel therme vals.
It’s not a long book, but it took me a long time to read. It’s really disjointed, and I’m not sure I ever really got into it. I found it hard to follow, and ultimately I didn’t really care do anyone in it....
A disappointment.
A disappointment.
As someone who has recently taken up swimming for exercise, I was very excited to read Swimming Studies as it had gotten some good reviews. Written by a Canadian swimmer who competed in the Olympic Trials it shows the life of a swimmer but does so in a very rambling artistic way. Therein lies the problem for me, I need more of a straightforward narrative instead of short snippets from random points of time that don't seem to connect in any obvious way.
This beautiful little book tries to answer the question, what happens to the expert versions of us? What happens to the skills we work so hard to perfect, the hours we spend training to be a certain way, to the exclusion of what feels natural? I felt a simple kinship with this story, as a former adolescent competitive swimmer who gave it up for a longing to make art, to use my hands, to take on a quiet obsession that merely replaced but did not absolve the way I’d trained myself to train. Like the author, through swimming and through art, I’d taught my brain to count and catalogue and observe my way through the quiet, solitary parts of life. To rethink pain and open space and even a sense of time. The book ends with a reference to the ever-present smell of chlorine because that’s maybe what all our lives become - the hint of the memory of something that was overpowering, all-consuming.
“Being pool-trained, I'm used to seeing four sides and a bottom. When that clarity is removed I get nervous. I imagine things. Sharks, the slippery sides of large fish, shaggy pieces of sunken frigates, dark corroded iron, currents. I can swim along the shore, my usual stroke rolled and tipped by the waves, the ribbed sandy bottom wiggling beneath me, but eventually I get spooked by the open-ended horizon, the cloudy blue thought of that sheer drop-the continental shelf.”
It took me forever to learn to swim. I had lessons in elementary school, but failed to acquire any skills. I eventually learned not to be afraid, but I am a lousy swimmer. The fact that swimming is difficult for me contrasts with the fact that I read two books about swimming in the last year. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? The two books were very different and they were both good.
I have had this book on my TBR for several years. I encountered Shapton with her novel, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, which has to be one of the weirdest books I have ever read. (You can read my review here: https://tinyurl.com/yckef7bx ) I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this title, but finally I have read it.
This is Shapton’s own story, not fiction. She was a competitive swimmer and this memoir looks back at that time in her life and how it has affected her very being. The narrative is not straightforward and Shapton has illustrated this book. So sometimes it felt choppy and disjointed. However, by the end I had a full picture of what competitive swimming was like for Shapton. I also had an image of how Shapton’s family, boyfriend, coaches and others in her life influenced Shapton herself.
I feel like I am not conveying a good idea of the strengths and depths of this memoir. If you are interested in reading about people’s lives, in learning how people grow and change, this might be the book for you.
It took me forever to learn to swim. I had lessons in elementary school, but failed to acquire any skills. I eventually learned not to be afraid, but I am a lousy swimmer. The fact that swimming is difficult for me contrasts with the fact that I read two books about swimming in the last year. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? The two books were very different and they were both good.
I have had this book on my TBR for several years. I encountered Shapton with her novel, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, which has to be one of the weirdest books I have ever read. (You can read my review here: https://tinyurl.com/yckef7bx ) I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this title, but finally I have read it.
This is Shapton’s own story, not fiction. She was a competitive swimmer and this memoir looks back at that time in her life and how it has affected her very being. The narrative is not straightforward and Shapton has illustrated this book. So sometimes it felt choppy and disjointed. However, by the end I had a full picture of what competitive swimming was like for Shapton. I also had an image of how Shapton’s family, boyfriend, coaches and others in her life influenced Shapton herself.
I feel like I am not conveying a good idea of the strengths and depths of this memoir. If you are interested in reading about people’s lives, in learning how people grow and change, this might be the book for you.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced