Apr 302014
Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity
Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world. Categories of cartographic curiosities include: • Literar
List Price: $ 30.00
Price: $ 14.92
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If you like maps, you’ll love this book,
Like the author, I like maps, but unlike me, he got bored with the standard variety. He began a web site with the most unusual maps he could find — from which web site came this book.
It is a remarkable collection. There are maps showing California as an island, of what Africa might have looked like if Germany had won its wars, of countries that never were, of countries that wanted to be bigger than they were, of a proposed reorganization of the U.S. into 38 states, and many more. Some are scary, some funny, some puzzling, some enlightening. Each map has enough background to make it comprehensible.
In the process of enjoying the maps, one learns things. There are islands of Germany surrounded by Belgium. Before the introduction of standard time zones, railroad timetables were much more complicated than they are today. And did you ever wonder why part of Delaware’s border is a curve?
This is one of those books that is a pleasure to browse through. One can read it bit by bit, learning something every time.
If you like maps, you’ll love this book.
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|Good, but no replacement for the real thing,
If you regularly read the Strange Maps blog and want to support Frank Jacobs with a few bucks, then this is the way to go. The book compiles the blog entries with nice large photos and un-cluttered text. However, if you’re like I am, and like to look things up on the internet as you read about them, the experience of reading one of Frank’s stories on the web is vastly different than reading it in a book. The book doesn’t add anything to the content already on the web, and you miss out on the links to original sources and cross-references to other Strange Maps stories. If you or someone you know likes well-researched and engaging anecdotes about maps combined with the experience of reading such things in a book, then this one’s for you. But if you just want to see some cartographic curiosities and pick up a factoid or two along the way, then perhaps the Strange Maps blog should be your first destination. Then you can decide whether it’s worth is to shell out some money to have print copies of all the wonderful maps Frank has collected.
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|For Geography Lovers and History Buffs,
The maps are both historical, fantasy based and several “what if” maps.
Ther is a map of the Land of Oz which is pretty cool. Several early American and colonial era maps have their conversation points. The photographs of some maps are small, and reading the details can be tedious at times. My favourite map is one showing what Europe would like like had Nazi Germany won WWII. Scary, yet very intriguing.
The future is also shown. There are two maps showing the moon walks of Apollo 11 and 12. A fold out map of Mars’s moon Deimos reminds us that we are now mapping extra terrestrial locations. A map of Titan’s (as of yet) unnamed liquid methane lake is just beyond amazing.
Daniel Padovano
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