SWEAT A History of Exercise
By Bill Hayes
I heard US author Bill Hayes being interviewed on ABC radio in August 2022, discussing his new book SWEAT A History of Exercise. It sounded good so I ordered a copy and it was eventually delivered.
Boy, what a disappointment. What I had expected to be a relatively professional discussion of the history of exercise, it turned out to be what could only be described as complete dribble.
I agree with Jarrett Neal's analysis on Goodreads
Read this book and about twenty pages in you'll find yourself shouting the same refrain over and over--SO WHAT?!?!. Bill Hayes is trying to put together some sort of book on the subject of exercise, yet the finished product amounts to a lot of flotsam and jetsam. It's as if he is trying to stitch a quilt with many different pieces of fabric, some rough, some smooth, some delicate, some heavy, and the result is a quilt that itches, doesn't provide any warmth, and is just plain ugly to look at. It isn't fair to call Sweat: A History of Exercise a hybrid text because Hayes's narrative swerves into so many tangents that half the time the book doesn't even cohere. I think Hayes is trying to stitch together ancient history, memoir, cultural criticism, anatomy and kinesiology into a work that strives to make an important statement about the role of exercise in human life. It certainly isn't what I assumed Sweat would be, and the book fails in many ways.
I will not be keeping this book on my shelf. In my opinion, it does not deserve a place. Instead I am now walking out to my rubbish bin and depositing it where I think it deserves to reside.
Sorry but that's it.
