Strange Maps Cover
Destination: The World
Book: Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities by Frank Jacobs (Pub. date 10/29/09)
My name is Vera Marie and I am addicted to maps. What is more, I do not want to be cured.
What traveler does not love to thumb through an Atlas, or twirl a globe? Come on, admit it. Somewhere in your house you have a drawer full of road maps. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I even love an old book of historic maps that show me what the boundaries of Europe and Asia looked like from the Roman era to World War II.
Frank Jacobs has cleverly played to the weakness of the mapoholic in a blog, and now a book,Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
Some of the maps at the beginning of the book are of the “Where dragons be” variety. They were created back in the day when fanciful cartographers drew maps that led gullible mapoholics like Columbus and Magellan to venture beyond the known world. But most of the fanciful maps in this book go beyond geography as we know it.
The beautiful creatures of the Aleph maps that created anthropomorphic maps of European nations. Or maps of the world as someone wished it were divided, like a 15-state USA, or divided the way it might have if the Great War turned out differently.
And what a shock to learn that when I dug in my back yard as a child and found a rubber band, my father’s explanation was wrong. He said I had dug all the way to China and found the rubber band from a Chinese pigtail. The Antipodean map shows that I would have struck salt water–not a Chinese pigtail, because none of the United States lies in a straight line through the globe to China.
But stop me before I thumb through the 229 pages of this book and 100+ images and tell you about every single one! (Disclaimer. The publishers sent me a copy of this book, making them an enabler in therapy talk.)
- Mapping out the future of A Traveler’s Library is easy–
- One and sometimes TWO Newly Published or Sneak Preview Books each week for the next few weeks.
- Thursday the first of two Truly Frightening Halloween posts.
- And Friday–a new feature–French Fridays, starting with the NEW edition of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast. (Continuing until we run out of books about France)
- Some excellent Guest Posts will show up over the next weeks and Tuesday, November 3–a GREAT treat–No, I am not telling–you will just have to come see. (Clues: Author, debunking)
- Make it easy on yourself and subscribe so you do not miss any of the excitement.
Your turn–do you care to confess to your mapoholicism? And tell us your particular symptoms?
Tags: cartography, maps, Strange Maps, World travel
WHAT fun! i need to buy this book for *myself*! thanks, vera!
jessiev´s last blog ..Natasha Lands Down Under: Winner of Moonbeam Book Award
Re: Your addiction to maps: In his “The Anatomy of Melancholy” 17th Century scholar Robert Burton, who never traveled, physically at least, beyond Oxford, recommends map viewing as an effective cure for depression and boredom: “Methinks it would please any man to look upon a geographical map…chorographical,topological, delineation, to behold, as it were, all the remote provinces, towns, cities of the world, and never go forth to the limits of his studies, to measure by the scale and compass their extent, distance, examine their site.” He enthuses at length on this, citing many famous people who cherished maps and the reading thereof.
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
What a great quote! That certainly belongs in the Strange Maps book. I hope you don’t mind if I draw the attention of the author to Mr. Burton’s quote over at his blog site.
Wow, that book is so cool. I could look at maps for days. I was the kid who cut all the continents apart and tried to piece them back together. Strange Maps sounds really neat. It would very cool to see the maps that are drawn if wars and events turned out differently. I’ve often thought about it.
I have a love of maps. I have many maps of the western US that help guide me to ghost towns and mining settlements. Maps are awesome.
Thanks for reviewing this one. Frank Jacobs Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities is on my list. I want to see the map of world “if the Great War turned out differently”! Thanks!