Rowing books range from novels to technical advice. We list popular and classic books which you can read. Become a student of rowing by reading rowing books.

Book of the Month

Each month, Jess DiCarlo comes on the Faster Masters Rowing Radio podcast to talk about her choice of one rowing book. This month she has chosen:

Olaf Tufte’s Skjerpins. This literally means “sharpening” or more prosaically “Get a grip – you can always get better”.

Top 5 Classic Rowing Books

1. Assault on Lake Casitas – Brad Alan Lewis
2. Boys in the Boat – Daniel Brown
3. Mind Over Water: Lessons on Life and the Art of Rowing – Craig Lambert
4. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome
5. True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny  – Daniel Topolski

Top 5 Rowing Coach and Rowing Technique books

1. Rudern – The East German text of oarsmanship
2. Training for the Complete Rower: A Guide to Improving Performance – Paul Thompson & Alex Wolf
3. Masters Rowing – Training for fitness, technique and competition – Volker Nolter & Wolfgang Fritsch
4. Steve Fairbairn – Slowly Forward,
5. Ed McNeely/Marlene Royle – Skillful Rowing

Top Rowing novels

1. On The Water – H M van den Brink
2. Flat Water Tuesday – Ron Irwin
3. Water Under The Bridge – Simon Murch
4. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome
5. The Seven Seat: A True Story of Rowing, Revenge and Redemption – Daniel J Boyne

Top Rowing Biographies

1. My Olympic Life – Anita DeFrantz
2. A Golden Age – Steve Redgrave
3. A Lifetime in a Race – Matthew Pinsent
4. My Autobiography – Katherine Grainger
5. Gold Medal Flapjack: Silver Medal Life – Alison Mowbray

I listed most of the books below – but I don’t warrant any typos or missing author names…. this list is still growing.

Please buy from Rowing Stores if possible. (Row2k has a good range).

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

• The Big Picture – Dutch rowing photos by Merijn Soeters
• The New Toughness Training for Sports: Mental Emotional Physical Conditioning by James E. Loehr
• Skjerpins – by Olaf Tufte
• The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with the Cambridge Boat Race Crew by Mark de Rond
• My Olympic Life – Anita Defrantz
• Socrates the Rower – How rowing Informs Philosophy – John Frohnmeyer
• Perfect Balance – Aquil Abdullah
• The Wondrous Sport of Rowing – Phil Stekl
• The Trinity College VIII: Rowing for the Ladies Plate – David Hickey
• Southerners Do Not Row – Scott Collins
• Masters Rowing – Training for fitness, technique and competition – Volker Nolte, Wolfgang Fritsch
• Learnings from 5 Olympic Games – Frances Houghton MBE
• Better Great than Never – Lindsay Dare Shoop
• The Long Win – Cath Bishop
• Women’s voices in rowing – Daniela Nachazelova
• Water Ready, How to Get and Keep Your Rowing Equipment in its Prime – Mike Davenport
• A Pearl in the Storm: How I found my heart in the middle of the ocean – Tori Murdoch McLure
• Thor Nilsen – Rowing’s Global Coach – Chris Dodd
• Rowing Stronger – Will Ruth
• The Movement of Rowing self-screening strategies for the ankle – Blake Gourlay
• The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging – Mike Davenport
• Assault on Lake Casitas – Brad Alan Lewis
• Long Live Open Water: Tales of Open Water Rowing, Food, Family and Life – Wayne Lysobey
• Red Rose Crew – Daniel J Boyne
• Boys in the Boat – Daniel Brown
• The Shell Game – Stephen Kiesling
• The Complete Recreational Rower and Racer – Stephen Kiesling
• Rudern – The East German text of oarsmanship
• Blood over Water – James and David Livingston
• When Crickets Cry – Charles Martin
• The Amateurs – David Halberstam
• A Golden Age – Steve Redgrave
• A Lifetime in a Race – Matthew Pinsent
• My Autobiography – Katherine Grainger
• Gold Medal Flapjack: Silver Medal Life – Alison Mowbray
• Flat Water Tuesday – Ron Irwin
• Wanted: Rowing Coach – Brad Alan Lewis
• On The Water – H M van den Brink
• Navigating Early – Clare Vanderpool
• Rowing Through the Barbed Wire Fence – Rima Karaliene
• Course Correction: A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX – Ginny Gilder
• The Sculler at Ease – Frank Cunningham
• Mind Over Water: Lessons on Life and the Art of Rowing – Craig Lambert
• Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome
• Water Under The Bridge – Simon Murch
• Something In The Water (about the Skibbereen Rowing Club) – Kieran McCarthy
• The Complete Book of Rowing – Steve Redgrave
• A Text book of Oarsmanship – Gilbert C Bourne
• Periodisation – Tudor Bompa
• Drawn to the Rhythm – Sara Hall
• Suga Water – Arshay Cooper
• The Baltimore Blues – Laura Lippman
• Ready All! – George Yeoman Pocock and Crew Racing
• Boathouse Row; Waves of change in the birthplace of American Rowing – Dotty Brown
• The Story of World Rowing – Chris Dodd
• Kelly, a Father, a Son, an American quest – Daniel J Boyne
• Rowing For My Life: Two oceans, Two lives, One Journey – Kathleen Saville
• Let’s Take The Long Way Home; a memoir of friendship – Gail Caldwell
• The Way of a Man with a Blade – Hugh Robert Arthur Edwards
• Disappointment River : Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage – Brian Castner
• True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny  – Daniel Topolski
• The Legendary Casey Brothers – Jim Casey and Jim Hudson
• Training for the Complete Rower: A Guide to Improving Performance – Paul Thompson & Alex Wolf
• The Seven Seat: A True Story of Rowing, Revenge and Redemption – Daniel J Boyne
• The Kiwi Pair – Hamish Bond and Eric Murray
• Will it Make the Boat Go Faster? – Ben Hunt-Davis
• Four Men in a Boat: The Inside Story of the Sydney 2000 Coxless Four -Tim Foster & Rory Ross
• Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge – Jill Fredston
• The Men of Kent: 10 Boys, A Fast Boat and The Coach Who Made Them Champions – Rick Rinehart
• Once a Runner – John L Parker Jr
• Pulling Through – the story of the Kings Cup – Bruce Coe
• The Oarsmen: The Remarkable Story of the Men Who Rowed From The Great War To Peace  – Scott Patterson
• Essential Sculling – Daniel J. Boyne
• The Complete Sculler – Richard Burnell
• Slowly Forward – Steve Fairbairn
• Sculling in a Nutshell – Gordon Hamilton
• Rowing Rudern, The GDR Text of Oarsmanship – Dr. Ernst Herberger, et al
• High Performance Rowing – John McArthur
• Skillful Rowing – Ed McNeely & Marlene Royle
• The Art of Sculling – Joe Paduda
• Tip of the Blade: Notes on Rowing – Marlene Royle
• Rowing and Sculling, The Complete Manual – Bill Sayer
• Advanced Rowing: International Perspectives on High Performance Rowing – Charles Simpson & Jim Flood

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