

A deep dive (no pun intended, I swear) into swimming's history - both its modern incarnation as a recreational activity during the early 19th-century, and the Classical era from which those 19th-century Romantics drew their inspiration, when swimming was infused with heroic, and even divine, qualities. I love to swim, and I also love books where an obsessive examines the subject of their passion in detail, so this one was perfect for me.