Maphead
Subtitle: charting the wide, weird world of geography wonks
By: Ken Jennings ; [illustration, Stuart McArthur]
Contributors: McArthur, Stuart
Edition: 1st Scribner hardcover ed.
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9781439167175
Subjects: Maps; Cartography
Description: It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere. Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks, from the London Map Fair to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the "unreal estate" charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-266) and index.
Table of contents: title: Eccentricity; title: Bearing; title: Fault; title: Benchmarks; title: Elevation; title: Legend; title: Reckoning; title: Meander; title: Transit; title: Overedge; title: Frontier; title: Relief.