My Swimming Bookshelf

My favorite books about water and swimming

May 23, 2024

Swimming and writing are my life, which means I’ve also read a lot of books about both of them. These are some of my favorites about water and swimming, in alphabetical order. Some are instructional/technical, some are memoir or novels, and some explore why we love water.

What are your favorite books about swimming? Please share in the comments! I’d love to expand my shelf. Honestly, books and swimsuits are serious shopping weaknesses for me.

Book cover images of books about swimming

Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do, Wallace J. Nichols

Marine biologist Nichols dives into the science behind what we know to be true—water makes us feel better. Cultivating a “blue mind” can help us be our best selves and help preserve the world’s oceans and waterways for future generations.

The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuchnavitch

This is a memoir that’s not about swimming, though the author is a lifelong swimmer. The book swims in and out of her memories as she traces her life from young mother of a stillborn child through addiction and sex, finally reaching land through writing. “All the events in my life swim in and out between each other. Without chronology. Like in dreams.” The writing is so beautiful and such a gut punch at the same time. Like water, our memories sometimes seep in where we don’t want them or risk drowning us.

Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, Thich Nhat Hahn

While this book is not about swimming, it was an essential read for me as I was preparing for my first one-mile swim and working through my panic attacks in open water. Beautifully and thoughtfully written by Zen master and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, it examines the origins of fear and offers practices to greet it like an old friend, instead of a dreaded invader. I still use it.

Open Water Swimming Manual: An Expert’s Survival Guide for Triathletes and Open Water Swimmers, Lynne Cox

Legendary open water swimmer Lynne Cox has written many books, from Grayson, the tale of her encounter with a baby grey whale while swimming in Southern California, to Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer, her life in her record-breaking swims; to Swimming in the Sink, a memoir about the losses, heartbreak, and heart condition that physically disabled the athlete and her return to life, swimming, and love, one stroke at a time, in her kitchen sink. You can’t go wrong with any of them, but the first one I read as part of my training for my first open water swim was Open Water Swimming Manual: An Expert’s Survival Guide for Triathletes and Open Water Swimmers. It’s full of tips and great advice for anyone preparing for a swim.

Rough Water: Stories of Survival From the Sea, edited by Clint Willis

A psychic once told me that in a past life I had been a ship’s captain and drowned at sea so maybe that’s why I have always been obsessed with ocean survival stories. This collection includes first person accounts of survival, reportage, and fiction that I couldn’t put down as I filed away WCS (Worst Case Scenario) tidbits.

The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka

This novel is about how a group of regular pool swimmers handle the disruption of their routines when a crack in their pool closes it. Alice, one of the swimmers, has deepening

dementia and the loss of the pool brings her estranged daughter deeper into her life and more changes. A beautiful meditation on aging, memory, and the community created by swimming.

Swimming Studies, Leanne Shapton. This beautiful memoir covers Leanne’s journey with water, from a competitive high school swimmer training for Olympic trials and trying to please her immigrant parents, to finding her way back to her love of the water on her own once that era is over. An illustrator as well, the stories are given breathing room by her watercolors and genius photo profiles of her swimsuits through time.

Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Anyone to Master Open-Water Swimming, Terry Laughlin

I’ve been practicing the Total Immersion swim technique since the early 2000s. I’ve taken TI pool workshops, their Kona, HI open water swimming camp, and private lessons in their New Paltz, NY studio. I find it beautiful and efficient, accessible for any level of swimmer at any age, a mindful and a never-ending learning process. Founder Terry Laughlin passed of cancer back in 2017, but his family continues to run TI and his technique lives on through thousands of happy swimmers.

Waterlog
by Roger Deakin

A delightful travelog and wild swimming advocacy manifesto that was inspired by John Cheever’s short story, The Swimmer, in which British naturalist Roger Deakin walks and swims his way across the British isles in 1996. (Deakin’s book was an inspiration for one of my favorite British swim brands, Deakin & Blue)

Wind, Waves, and Sunburn: A Brief History of Marathon Swimming; Conrad Wennerberg. I feel bad even listing this 1974 gem, which is out of print and almost impossible to find but it’s such a comprehensive, well-written chronicle of the history of marathon swimming, its characters and legendary swims, from the 1920s through the early 1970s. Wennerberg, who died in 2016, was a notable swimmer, pilot, and coach who was largely responsible for the creation of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.

Why We Swim, Bonnie Tsui

Why do we get into wild water and pools to do an activity the human body is ill-designed for? Traveling around the globe, Bonnie, an accomplished swimmer, journalist, and writer, explores the history and many facets of why people of all cultures are drawn to be in, on, and near the water of oceans, lakes, rivers, and pools. A great read.