I picked up Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies purely because I liked the cover (and the collection of swimming costumes inside) shallow, I know, but it turned out to be a lucky pick.
As I have mentioned before I've been swimming since I was a tiny, one of the only things my parents were adamant me and my brothers stuck with, and Shapton’s vivid description of a moment during a swim practice brought me back to my own child hood experience: the soupy chorine-thick smell, the familiar feeling of sweating while in water, and the refreshing wave of winter cold hitting me as I made a flip turn at the far end of the pool. In evocatively describing things familiar and unknown, Swimming Studies brings the solitary activity of swimming into everyday life. It isn’t a sports book, more of a place for athlete and artist to coexist. Right up my street and something i'll be dipping back into i'm sure!
I would read it if I were you...
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