The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

The Boys in the Boat

Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

2013 • 418 pages

Ratings52

Average rating4.5

15

I enjoyed this book enough that I stayed up until almost 3:00 a.m. to finish it. As usual in books like this there was a ton of really interesting info about how people got on on a day-to-day basis (e.g. how did people of modest means who really wanted a college education afford it? They worked. Constantly. All day every day. How the protagonist of this book did not drop dead of exhaustion at age 18 will be an enduring mystery to me.)

You know that any type of book that discusses sport is going to get on to “flow” eventually, and this book really stands out in explaining the mental work of rowing in a way that made me want to go find a scull somewhere and learn to row.

July 31, 2017Report this review