Books for the News, Reading list, Sports

A Reading List for the Summer Olympics

In honor of the 2024 Olympic Games, kicking off tomorrow in Paris, we’ve put together a list of our favorite books on sports history and culture, techniques, analytics, and the history of the Games. Learn how to optimize your swing on the golf course, set your pace on the track, or dive deep into the history of tennis, swimming, cycling, and cricket. More of a philosopher than an athlete? Don’t worry, we have books for you as well.

a decorative collage of book covers

Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body

Edited by Caroline Vout and Christopher Young

From Paul Holberton Publishing

Sheds new light on the Paris Olympics of 1924, often considered the first international games.

Olympic Visions: Images of the Games through History

By Mike O’Mahony

From Reaktion Books 

Olympic Visions explores how painters and sculptors, photographers and filmmakers, and architects and designers have helped to affect the consciousness of spectators around the world.

No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch

Chris Dempsey and Andrew Zimbalist

From ForeEdge

In 2013 and 2014, some of Massachusetts’ wealthiest and most powerful individuals hatched an audacious plan to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Boston. No Boston Olympics is the story of how an ad hoc, underfunded group of diverse and engaged citizens joined together to challenge and ultimately derail Boston’s boosters, the USOC, and the IOC.

Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath

By Douglas Hartmann

Moving from historical narrative to cultural analysis, Hartmann explores what we can learn about the complex relations between race and sport in contemporary America.

Strokes of Genius: A History of Swimming

By Eric Chaline

From Reaktion Books

Strokes of Genius traces the history of swimming from the first civilizations to its current worldwide popularity as a sport, fitness pastime, and leisure activity. Chaline explores swimming’s role in ritual, early trade and manufacturing, warfare, and medicine, before describing its transformation in the early modern period into a leisure activity and a competitive sport.

Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming

By Karen Eva Carr

From Reaktion Books

A deep dive into the history of aquatics that exposes centuries-old tensions of race, gender, and power at the root of many contemporary swimming controversies.

Tennis Science: How Player and Racket Work Together

By Bruce Elliott, Machar Reid, and Miguel Crespo

Whether you prefer the grass courts of Wimbledon, the clay courts of the French Open, or the hard courts of the US and Australian Opens, Tennis Science is a must-have for anyone interested in the science behind a winning game.

Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

Elizabeth Wilson

A book about tennis’s grand culture, one that unveils the sport’s long history as it lives and breathes (or grunts) in the modern game.

Running: A Global History

Thor Gotaas

Translated by Peter Graves

From Reaktion Books

In this humorous and unique world history, Thor Gotaas collects numerous unusual and curious stories of running from ancient times to modern marathons and Olympic competitions.

Running Science: Optimizing Training and Performance

John Brewer

As a sports scientist and Running Fitness columnist, John Brewer has reviewed hundreds of scientific studies, and he offers runners the benefit of their findings in Running Science.

Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History from Pitch to Page

By Richard H. Thomas

From Reaktion Books

As famous for its complicated rules as it is for its contentious (and lengthy) matches, cricket is the quintessentially English sport. Or is it? From cricket in literature to sticky wickets, Cricketing Lives is a paean to the quirky characters and global phenomenon that are cricket.

Golf Science: Optimum Performance from Tee to Green

Edited by Mark F. Smith

Sports science expert Mark F. Smith investigates the scientific facets of the game—mind and body, the swing, the equipment, the environment, coaching with technology, the practice process, and more.

Cycling Science: How Rider and Machine Work Together

By Max Glaskin

The simple process of getting about on two wheels brings us in touch with a wealth of fascinating science, and here journalist Max Glaskin investigates the scientific wonders that keep cyclists in their saddles.

In Praise of the Bicycle

Marc Augé

Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan

From Reaktion Books

Mark Augé casts his anthropologist’s eye on a subject close to his heart: cycling. Augé takes us on a two-wheeled ride around our cities and on a personal journey into ourselves.

A Philosophy of Sport

Steven Connor

From Reaktion Books

A new philosophical understanding of sport in its own terms, enlisting the help of Hegel, Freud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Adorno, Sartre, Ayer, Deleuze, and Serres.

Doping: A Sporting History

April Henning and Paul Dimeo

From Reaktion Books

A gripping, provocative history of doping in sports—packed with examples—that proposes a new emphasis for modern anti-doping efforts.

Contemporary Athletics and Ancient Greek Ideals

By Daniel A. Dombrowski

Arguing that athletic playfulness coexists with serious underpinnings, Dombrowski harnesses the insights of ancient Greek thinkers to illuminate contemporary athletics.

Games People Played: A Global History of Sport

By Wray Vamplew

From Reaktion Books

Now in paperback, this first global history of sports offers all spectators and participants a reason to cheer—and to think.

Get in the Game: An Interactive Introduction to Sports Analytics

By Tim Chartier

Illustrated by Ansley Earle

An award-winning math popularizer, who has advised the US Olympic Committee, NFL, and NBA, offers sports fans a new way to understand truly improbable feats in their favorite games.


These books and more on sports and recreation are available on our website or from your favorite bookseller.