I was up until 3:00am this morning finishing one of the best books I've ever read. The title is "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown.
It's not a brand new book; it's been out long enough for someone to be making a movie from it. But if you haven't read it, it's well worth doing so in my opnion.
In brief, it's the story of the University of Washington 9-man rowing crew who won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The story is centered on one of the crew members, Joe Rantz, and it follows his life in the depression through a series of events that I doubt people of that age today could even survive.
The book is extremely well written in my opinon, and covers all the aspects of the sport, from the sheer physical agony of rowing a 60' shell in competition, to the buidling of the boats by the legendary George Pocock, to the mental struggles of achieving what it takes to win, to the blow-by-blow descriptions of the races themselves.
The book teaches a lot about character and what forms it.
Outstanding story, in my opinon. I gained a hell of a lot by reading it.
The 1936 UW crew is pictured below.
It's not a brand new book; it's been out long enough for someone to be making a movie from it. But if you haven't read it, it's well worth doing so in my opnion.
In brief, it's the story of the University of Washington 9-man rowing crew who won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The story is centered on one of the crew members, Joe Rantz, and it follows his life in the depression through a series of events that I doubt people of that age today could even survive.
The book is extremely well written in my opinon, and covers all the aspects of the sport, from the sheer physical agony of rowing a 60' shell in competition, to the buidling of the boats by the legendary George Pocock, to the mental struggles of achieving what it takes to win, to the blow-by-blow descriptions of the races themselves.
The book teaches a lot about character and what forms it.
Outstanding story, in my opinon. I gained a hell of a lot by reading it.
The 1936 UW crew is pictured below.
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