On the Map On the Map

On the Map

A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks

    • 3.9 • 12 Ratings
    • $13.99
    • $13.99

Publisher Description

Cartography enthusiasts rejoice: the bestselling author of Just My Type reveals the fascinating relationship between man and map.
Simon Garfield’s Just My Type illuminated the world of fonts and made everyone take a stand on Comic Sans and care about kerning. Now Garfield takes on a subject even dearer to our fanatical human hearts: maps.

Imagine a world without maps. How would we travel? Could we own land? What would men and women argue about in cars? Scientists have even suggested that mapping—not language—is what elevated our prehistoric ancestors from ape-dom. Follow the history of maps from the early explorers’ maps and the awe-inspiring medieval Mappa Mundi to Google Maps and the satellite renderings on our smartphones, Garfield explores the unique way that maps relate and realign our history—and reflect the best and worst of what makes us human.

Featuring a foreword by Dava Sobel and packed with fascinating tales of cartographic intrigue, outsize personalities, and amusing “pocket maps” on an array of subjects from how to fold a map to the strangest maps on the Internet, On the Map is a rich historical tapestry infused with Garfield’s signature narrative flair. Map-obsessives and everyone who loved Just My Type will be lining up to join Garfield on his audacious journey through time and around the globe.

  • GENRE
    Reference
    RELEASED
    2012
    December 27
    LANGUAGE
    EN
    English
    LENGTH
    464
    Pages
    PUBLISHER
    Penguin Publishing Group
    SELLER
    PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
    SIZE
    111
    MB

    Customer Reviews

    BenJones3 ,

    A joy to read.

    Thank you Simon!

    JWAustin ,

    Book good, the format is not good.

    The boot is really good. Its chapters are split up in a way which makes it easy to read the parts you want to, and skip over the topics you aren't interested in.

    But my low rating is because the pages don't turn easily. They are formatted like a PDF copy, and you have to scroll back and forth on each page to read the text. It's really bad design.

    marlenez ,

    Unreadable in iBooks

    This is not about the book but that you can't navigate it on either iPad or iPhone. Apple or the publisher needs to fix this.

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