All Over the Map; A Cartographic Odyssey
by: Betsy Mason & Greg Miller
Charting real and imagined worlds.
Whether etching lines into animal skins or manipulating pixels on a screen, people have been creating maps to describe, recall, and comprehend the world for thousands of years. Now, award-winning journalists Betsy Mason and Greg Miller, creators of the popular National Geographic blog All Over the Map, share their passion and take you on journeys back in time, forward into the future, around the world, and out in the heavens--all through the fascinating art and science of cartography.
In these vivid pages, see the Pacific coastline of South America as it was pictures in an early Spanish atlas, with which a 17th-century English pirate bargained for his life. Study the detailed maps made just after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake: the keys to our modern understanding of earth science and plate tectonics. Follow your nose through the urban smellscape of Kiev with a modern map that explores the ever changing scents of the city.
Brilliantly colorful and intricately details, with hundreds of maps, graphics, and in-depth comments from leading cartographers, curators, and scholars, All Over the Map will capture the imagination of anyone hungry for knowledge about our world--and the many ways we have found to picture it. {cover copy}
I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.
And let me just say, that this bad boy is an absolute visual delight. A feast for the eyes. A map-lovers dreamscape. I got so giddy looking through this book, because the maps are so incredibly cool and immersive. The stories that accompany them make them that much better! I love what a wide variety of maps are covered in this book. Different map styles, themes, subjects... its really a great overall look at the art and science of maps and mapmaking.
As a letterer, I was hoping to see some maps done mostly with words, which happen to be my favorite kind (no surprise there, really). That was the only thing that disappointed me with this book. It would have been such a neat section to add. Perhaps if they update it in the future, they can add that section. Despite the lack of heavily-lettered maps, I was overall extremely pleased with this book.
My favorite sections were the beautifully wave-like winding visual representation of the Mississippi River and how it has changed over the years. I also loved the color-coded visual of Amsterdam's buildings from oldest to newest. It was really cool to see the progress, but also it just looked like an awesome piece of contemporary art. The spiderweb tangle of lines showing tourist vs local traffic in New York was stunning. The farming landscapes of the United States was a gorgeous blending of colors and textures. The maps of the ocean floor had me so enthralled that after a while I felt like I was looking at a terrain map for another planet! The Trump vs Clinton voting map was so interesting I actually took a photo and sent it to my family group text like the giant map-loving nerd that I am. And last, but certainly not least, was the fact that this book also totally tipped it hat to us nerds out there and featured the Westeros map AND the plans to the Death Star! I mean, come on. How cool is that?
Overall, this was nearly everything I hoped it would be, and more. It's a book I want to share with other people. One that made me want to text pictures to group chats, or make a note to bring it over to my parents house and look through it with my dad. It's a perfect coffee-table book, which these big ol' books are made to be. And it even had me imagining my living room re-decorated to include a spot to shelve this and the other NatGeo books I own!
Charting real and imagined worlds.Whether etching lines into animal skins or manipulating pixels on a screen, people have been creating maps to describe, recall, and comprehend the world for thousands of years. Now, award-winning journalists Betsy Mason and Greg Miller, creators of the popular National Geographic blog All Over the Map, share their passion and take you on journeys back in time, forward into the future, around the world, and out in the heavens--all through the fascinating art and science of cartography.
In these vivid pages, see the Pacific coastline of South America as it was pictures in an early Spanish atlas, with which a 17th-century English pirate bargained for his life. Study the detailed maps made just after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake: the keys to our modern understanding of earth science and plate tectonics. Follow your nose through the urban smellscape of Kiev with a modern map that explores the ever changing scents of the city.
Brilliantly colorful and intricately details, with hundreds of maps, graphics, and in-depth comments from leading cartographers, curators, and scholars, All Over the Map will capture the imagination of anyone hungry for knowledge about our world--and the many ways we have found to picture it. {cover copy}
I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.
And let me just say, that this bad boy is an absolute visual delight. A feast for the eyes. A map-lovers dreamscape. I got so giddy looking through this book, because the maps are so incredibly cool and immersive. The stories that accompany them make them that much better! I love what a wide variety of maps are covered in this book. Different map styles, themes, subjects... its really a great overall look at the art and science of maps and mapmaking.
As a letterer, I was hoping to see some maps done mostly with words, which happen to be my favorite kind (no surprise there, really). That was the only thing that disappointed me with this book. It would have been such a neat section to add. Perhaps if they update it in the future, they can add that section. Despite the lack of heavily-lettered maps, I was overall extremely pleased with this book.
My favorite sections were the beautifully wave-like winding visual representation of the Mississippi River and how it has changed over the years. I also loved the color-coded visual of Amsterdam's buildings from oldest to newest. It was really cool to see the progress, but also it just looked like an awesome piece of contemporary art. The spiderweb tangle of lines showing tourist vs local traffic in New York was stunning. The farming landscapes of the United States was a gorgeous blending of colors and textures. The maps of the ocean floor had me so enthralled that after a while I felt like I was looking at a terrain map for another planet! The Trump vs Clinton voting map was so interesting I actually took a photo and sent it to my family group text like the giant map-loving nerd that I am. And last, but certainly not least, was the fact that this book also totally tipped it hat to us nerds out there and featured the Westeros map AND the plans to the Death Star! I mean, come on. How cool is that?
Overall, this was nearly everything I hoped it would be, and more. It's a book I want to share with other people. One that made me want to text pictures to group chats, or make a note to bring it over to my parents house and look through it with my dad. It's a perfect coffee-table book, which these big ol' books are made to be. And it even had me imagining my living room re-decorated to include a spot to shelve this and the other NatGeo books I own!
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