Book Review—On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks
Comments
On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks
Here we have a wonderful collection of short stories, all related to various geographical and cartographical topics. The book was an absolute blast to read, and I'd recommend it for anyone even just the least bit interested in maps.
On the
Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon
Garfield
My rating: 4 of 5
stars
Taken on the whole, I certainly enjoyed On The Map. It doesn't dive too deep into any one particular map-related antidote, but it is a massively broad collection of cartographic stories. My biggest gripe, and perhaps the only thing holding it back from five stars, is the lack of color on the map images! Almost all of the prints were too small and low resolution to be able to fully appreciate them. Many of the stories were so interesting that it had me searching up more information online to learn about a particular topic.
There were a few things that I wanted to point out, which really jumped out at me. First, I totally resonated with the Stevenson quote on pg. 261:
I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes of woodlands, the courses of roads and rivers, the prehistoric footsteps of man still distinctly tracable up hill and down dale, the mills and the ruins, the ponds and the ferries, perhaps the Standing Stone or the Druidic Circle on the heath; here is an inexhaustible fund of interest for any man with eyes to see, or tuppenceworth of imagination to understand with.— Robert Louis Stevenson
This captures the same wonder with which I enjoy looking at maps, and imagining the vastness of the lands they represent. In particular, I have one print of an 18th century map of New Jersey in my kitchen, and I love looking at the old trails and landmarks in the area we live. Some of the trails are now our busy highways, yet some other landmarks are lost in the overgrowth of the forest.
It was great how the book traversed chronologically from older maps, to our modern GPS systems. Although the benefits of a persistently available navigation system are readily apparent, it's also somewhat disappointing how much these devices remove the personal aspect of planning a trip out: selecting a route, gauging distances and towns to stop at, and even gauging how the climate will change from the beginning of a road trip to the end as different regions are crossed. Perhaps I'm fearful of losing the ability to plan my own trips out; I always use the GPS in "top-down" mode so I never lose sight of the true direction we are headed!
Finally, ending on a note about not only Google Maps, but also what I consider to be a pivotal project: Open Street Maps. It would have been nice to see even more ground covered on the topic of OSM, though I appreciate that the author pointed out how OSM is often the most up-to-date map available due to its extensive army of volunteer mappers. Although one cannot overstate the value of the business information availability on Google Maps, it's also impossible to open up Google Maps and discover near the same level of detail. For example, we might wonder if a park will have a playground, benches, or an available bathroom for inevitable toddler potty trips; OSM often has this much detail (and more). If it doesn't, we can simply add it ourselves for the next family to use!.
All in all, this book has inspired me to grab more books on the topic of cartography, mapping and geography; all of which I'm looking forward to learning more about.
