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I'm an easy sell on a book about maps - I love 'em. Electronic maps were my livelihood for ten years. My checks were faux antique maps. I had note pads made from surplus USGS maps. Still want map pajamas.
Nevertheless, this is a fun read.
Mostly what I learned is: there are a lot of odd ducks out there, whose love for maps has manifested in strange ways. Visiting points where latitude and longitude are nice even numbers, just because they're nice even numbers? Odd. (Although I looked up the closes ...more
Nevertheless, this is a fun read.
Mostly what I learned is: there are a lot of odd ducks out there, whose love for maps has manifested in strange ways. Visiting points where latitude and longitude are nice even numbers, just because they're nice even numbers? Odd. (Although I looked up the closes ...more
A slow book, not meaty but kind of chewy. And it got slightly better and faster as it went on though a bit weak in the end. I'm definitely not a full fledged maphead, but I understand the completest view of things. I thought the author captured that rather well. And where the jaunty writing has been irritating in some of my recent science reads, in this it was entirely appropriate. 3.5 out of 5 for ending stronger than beginning.
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Well, I love maps, so you might think I would love this book. And topically, I think it really had potential. But Jennings is a not as good a writer as he is a trivia buff (he is the Jeopardy champion of fame.) This book just didn't hold together for me. There were some good chapters - I like the one on the National Geographic Bee, some interesting trivia tidbits (as you'd expect from Jennings. For instance did you know that the the Henry Mountains and Escalante River in Utah were the last unnam
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Clever, funny and full of interesting facts, regardless if you are a cartography/geography nerd.
Maps are interesting. Mapheads, not so much.
Sep 13, 2011
Shellie (Layers of Thought)
marked it as to-read
Sep 21, 2011
David Schwan
marked it as to-read
Nov 15, 2011
Preeti
marked it as to-read
Dec 17, 2011
Eileen Conner
marked it as want-to-read-2
Apr 28, 2012
Michael
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Jul 05, 2012
Tippy
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Jul 26, 2012
Eric
marked it as to-read
Jun 28, 2013
Sarah
rated it
it was amazing
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Dec 18, 2015
Meagan
marked it as to-read
Dec 09, 2017
Stacy
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Oct 19, 2020
Keeley
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Oct 30, 2020
Jeffrey
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Mar 07, 2021
Nydia “Cookie”
marked it as to-read
