Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities by Frank Jacobs

Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities Reviews

• 
  Sesana

  I love the look of maps, especially antique ones. They're so intricate and beautiful and exact. So naturally, this particular book really caught my interest. But what, exactly, is a strange map? Lots of things, really. Strange Maps started as a blog of the same name (
  still going, as it turns out) where Jacobs essentially posted any map that drew his attention and was out of the ordinary. This book is more than 100 of those maps, reproduced in full color and with a thorough explanation by Jacobs.
  
  There's a huge variety here, everything from fictional lands to rejected border ideas to geographic oddities. I don't know if I'd call myself a map buff, but it was fascinating to me. Jacobs's commentaries were usually enlightening (he seems fairly knowledgeable, and he could point out some interesting details on the maps that I might have missed), though probably a pretty close match to what you could find on his blog. If you've been a regular reader of his blog, you probably won't get much extra out of the book version. But I'd never read his blog before, and don't think I'd even heard of it. I think I will be going through the archives now, though.
  
  It isn't a perfect book, though. Not all of the maps are that interesting, and some of them are barely maps at all. And if I hadn't been taking my time and only reading one or two chapters at a sitting, I probably would have gotten bored of the maps eventually. That said, there were more than enough maps that were interesting enough for me to share, so I would say that this is worth a read, but only if you take it in chunks.
• 
  Mir

  Yet another blog-to-book product. Like most of these, it was probably better as a blog (although I have not checked out the blog, I admit); the interest of the items wears thin after a few in a row.
  
  Surprisingly, I found the text more interesting than than the maps themselves, most of which were neither that "strange" (strange may here be used in the new, meaningless click-baity way that words such as "amaze," "shock" etc seem to be on the internet) or that visually interesting.
  
  
  
  Mm, okay, you could describe that shape as a "blue banana." If it makes you happy. Fine by me. Oops, I mean AMAZING!
  
  Not really. But Jacobs provides pretty cogent explanations for the historical and political developments reflected in the maps, and I appreciate the research that went into that, even if sometimes there is needless verbal emphasis on how "weird" or "surprising" the information is.
  
  Whether the text will be surprising or even interesting depends a lot on how much you already know. If you're an ignoramus forward-thinking modern person who doesn't realize, for instance, that the borders of nations were not always and eternally where they are today or that some countries are not monolingual, read this and get informed! Painlessly! If, on the other hand, you tend to give yourself headaches by trying to politely suppress your eyerolling at the political and historical ignorance of the average person, skip this book. The funniest bits will end up on facebook and you can catch them then.
• 
  Janice

  Fascinating book about maps, who knew an entire book could be written on ancient maps. For instance, did you know that California was orginally drawn as an island (pg 7). It all started with a 1510 novel by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo, want to know more? Check out this book, very intriging information goes on.
• 
  Claudia

  Books of old maps can be so interesting not only for the history they contain but some of the more esoteric ones also show thoughts at that time.
  
  Don't expect the standard variety of maps since this one is firmly in the strange realm. Examples include if you really are able to dig a hole straight through the earth, where you would end up - in most cases, it'll be a hole in an ocean. The different types of enclaves and examples of each - we are aware of Berlin when Germany was divided, Vatican City in the middle of Rome as is Lesotho in South Africa, the isolated area of Kentucky due to a bend in the Mississippi River that is nearly surrounded by Missouri and only accessible by land via Tennessee and the extremes where there are counter and counter-counterenclaves (yes, bits of a country surrounded by another country that is surrounded by the first country - parts of India and Bangladesh).
  
  There there are the ones to look at for the historical factor - if Germany had won the first world war, possibilities of how Europe and Africa could have looked like as well as if they had lost and its neighbors had expanded their borders to completely eliminate Germany as a country among others. Market Reef's zigzag border between Finland and Sweden as tectonic forces keep the island increasing in size (the border is reviewed supposedly every 25 years).
  
  Then the amusement factor comes in - the artist Frank Chimero's transformed states (California's cigarette butt, Illinois as an owl). Draw the United States from memory and see how close you get. A map of the land of Oz as well as its neighbors. Captain Nemo's mysterious island. South Carolina by favored barbeque sauces. The poem of Manhattan. The Aleph maps of 1869 - anthropomorphic depictions of various countries in natively dressed figures with short poems. What the world would look like if the oceans and land were reversed - I predict a large desert in the center of the Pacific continent.
  
  And dozens more - it's a fun and interesting read. The only real problem that I had was that some of the maps were small and they were, of course, the ones that the reader wanted to examine more closely.
• 
  Kyle

  Growing up I was the nerdy kid who loved looking at maps and globes during social studies. I still remember when I got an encyclopedia on CD-ROM. I spent hours watching animated maps of Alexander, the Romans, and the Mongols march across a map increasing the size of their empire and seeing the inevitable downfall.
  
  I also love weird stuff. Twin Peaks. The X-Files. The weirder the better. So when I heard about this book of Strange Maps I was sold. And it didn't disappoint.
  
  The classics are all here. The famous map of Napoleon's march (and retreat) into Russia. What Europe would look like if the Nazis had won. But there's a ton of hilarious entries including a map of Ludacris' hoes:
  http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008... That's right I said Ludacris' hoes... that guy gets around! Quote of the year: “There is a ‘ho belt‘ phenomenon nearly synonymous with the ‘Bible Belt’.”
  
  Another awesome map was one that let you see where you would end up if you dug a hole straight through the Earth and popped out the other side. It was cool seeing the answer but disappointing to see that I would not in fact end up in China (this knowledge would have saved me a very frustrating afternoon when I was about 8).
  
  Anyway, this book was very entertaining and though you can probably view most of these online at the author's blog it was awesome to have it in my hands.
  
  
• 
  Stewart Tame

  I don't know. I like the idea of this book, and I like some of the maps contained therein. I just found it to be less interesting than I'd hoped. I guess I'm just not as into maps as I thought. This is an eclectic mix of real world cartographical curiosities, as well as fictional worlds, art projects, graphs, and just plain uncategorizable ... stuff, I guess. It's an interesting book to dip into, but rather dry reading. Worth checking out if it sounds like your sort of thing, but don't be surprised if it really isn't.
• 
  Kris McCracken

  I like maps. All sorts of maps. This is a collection of odd and different maps.
• 
  Daniel A.

  For as long as I can remember, I've loved maps of all kinds; I even used to have an extensive collection of maps that I harvested from National Geographic. I discovered
  Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities when I was in the library looking (somewhat desperately) for a collection of all the great maps one finds in the beginnings of fantasy and sci-fi novels*, and the reference librarian pointed me to
  Frank Jacobs' collection of maps from his blog of the same name; all things being equal, I found Strange Maps fascinating and beautiful, and while it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it was a most worthwhile read irrespective.
  
  *I've since discovered a more-recently published book with just those kind of maps,
  Huw Lewis-Jones'
  The Writer's Map . . . and I'm simply tickled.
  
  It's a bit difficult to convey the breadth and range of maps that Jacobs presents in this book; Jacobs shows literary maps and real-world maps, modern maps and vintage maps going back to the so-called Age of Discovery, infographic maps and art maps and more straightforward maps—in general, a very wide variety, in upwards of fifteen sections on different cartographic subjects. Perhaps my favorite maps were the cartograms, i.e. maps that primarily conveyed statistical information; perhaps most striking of these was the map in which each country's borders was replaced by two simple letters—its top-level Internet domain (i.e. .us for the United States, .uk for the United Kingdom, .cn for the People's Republic of China, and so on and so forth)—as well as a map that suggested what a post-WWII Europe would look like had the Nazis been victorious. Accompanying each map is a more-or-less brief narrative (accompanied by copious endnotes!) explaining the context, and Jacobs' strengths as a blogger come through here; Jacobs' explanations are both entertaining and enlightening, and I Even Learned Some Things™.
  
  Atlases, no matter how entertaining, are ultimately reference books, and as such are, by definition, not for everyone, but if you like Jacobs' Strange Maps blog, you'll definitely enjoy his book.
  
• 
  Sam Link

  Good coffee table book for folks with a love of weird cartography. I especially like that he included the map of Napoleon's march into Russia, which I had seen before in a Tufte book.
• 
  Doug Cornelius

  Being in the real estate industry, I am a big fan of maps. I like how they help visual the world around us. There is the physical sense of the objects around us and how to get from one point to another.
  
  But maps can also help us visual information in many different ways. That is what interested me in
  Strange Maps by Frank Jacobs. I first heard about the book from an interview on the Freakonomics blog:
  Maps: Fighting Disease and Skewing Borders.
  
  I encountered the book and the
  Strange Maps blog at the same time. Although, it took a few months for the book to surface in my reading stack. (The blog was being published before the book.)
  
  As you might expect, the book is very blogish. Each page has a map and a narrative about the map. There are some great ones, some mediocre ones and some so-so ones. You take the hits with misses. In the end there is lots of interesting visuals and interesting information. After reading
  Strange Maps, you won’t view a map the same way.
• 
  Harris

  This is a difficult work to review. Since childhood, I've loved maps, spending much time sketching out strange worlds on scratch paper, convoluted edges, and squiggles marking out oceans and mountains. Maps bespeak travel, history, exploration, providing a pictorial interpretation of the world's many stories. Strange Maps provides all that and more, from real world political oddities (such as the short lived first Esperanto state on the Belgian-German border) to evocative maps of imaginary lands, to maps as works of art. Introduced by blogger Frank Jacobs and organized by theme, each of the included maps provokes much thought and interest. On the other hand, most of the maps presented in Strange Maps have appeared previously on the Strange Maps blog, which I have followed avidly for several years. Because of this, there were few surprises for me in the book.
  
  I was hoping for more new maps, though many did have expanded descriptions (lacking, for the most part, the blogs comments). In any case, I really enjoyed what was here and would recommend this for those unaware of the blog. Of course, I highly recommend visiting
  the blog as well.
• 
  matteo

  I love maps, and this books has some fun ones (and some disturbing ones). I bought the book almost ten years ago because I followed Jacobs' blog back in the day. He would write entries every week or so, and I remember being sad when the entries slowed down at some point. The "maps" range from global and international to regional and local; the visuals range from graphically complex to basic; and the topics are, literally, all over the map. My only complaint about the book version is that there are only a handful of sections/chapters, and he concentrates heavily on certain topics (e.g., pre- and post-WWI and WWII Germany). More variety would have been welcome.
• 
  Eduardo Santiago

  Exquisite. All the character and curiosity of the
  blog, but with rich and beautiful maps in print. A feast.
  
  Some netcentrisms made it past editing: "Moving your mouse cursor over any département" (p.181) didn't work so well for me. And for some of the more creative maps, it would have been helpful to have a sidebar providing context against a standard map. But no matter: this is a delightful book and a valuable addition to any cartophile's library.
• 
  Brenda B

  Its description says it all: "An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity." I have always been fascinated by maps, but here is where the intersection of culture and maps comes together in beautiful, thoughtful art.
• 
  Rachel

  I love cartography, so this book was right up my alley. My only complaint is that, even though it was a large book, it was difficult sometimes to read the fine print and see details of the different map. To the point where I googled a couple to look for a larger print.
• 
  Ben Vogel

  Awesome book. If you don't love maps, well, I don't know that we can be friends. Maybe.
  
  Clearing off another book that I finished but didn't log during the weird twilight zone of Corona pandemic time.
• 
  IPC

  Great collection of interesting maps. Anyone who likes looking at old and new maps will like this book.
• 
  Anika Claire

  Ultimately, this book contains what it says on the cover. An odd, mismatched collection of weird and wonderful maps. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or horrified!
• 
  Susan

  An idiosyncratic assortment of maps, many of them old.
  
  Not much along the lines of nautical charts per se.
  
  Perused it fairly rapidly. Would like to spend more time with it on another occasion.
• 
  Aimee

  A wildly varying collection of interesting maps. Even if you only have a passing interest in geography, this book is worth your time.
• 
  Robert Bagnall

  Fascinating stuff. My only complaint is that the maps could have been reproduced with better clarity and definition: some of the finer detail gets a bit lost.
• 
  Jenny

  I'm not sure I'd call this book "intriguing." There are certainly some interesting maps (I like the one with Antarctica and the "frontage" theory) but by and large skippable. Like why is there a page with a cloud on it that resembles Great Britain? That's not a map at all. It's probably better as a blog (which is how this collection started).
• 
  Scott Eggerding

  Some very fascinating maps with compelling stories. I never knew there was a salamander and a guy named Gerry who were combined by the artist of the unfinished George Washington portrait to name the first gerrymandered map. Other fascinating speculative maps are included throughout. But many of the maps were too small or detailed to really study despite the larger format of the book.
• 
  Kristina Moses

  I think it was really fun to look at the variety of weird and unexpected maps. My one critique is that it really works better as an online blog and not a book since some of the features of the maps were so small that you really want to be able to zoom in.
• 
  Helen

  This is a fascinating exploration of cartography! I loved the variety of maps shown in this excellent book!
• 
  Artur Coelho

  Por si só, os mapas já despertam a curiosidade. As cores, os nomes exóticos e as fractais linhas traçadas já nos levam a imaginar os locais reais. Quando entramos no campo dos mapas antigos, as possibilidades imaginárias explodem. Cartografando uma terra em grande parte desconhecida, os autores de antigos mapas imaginaram terras inexistentes, criaturas exóticas, seres fantásticos, e quando a imaginação já não dava para mais... hic sunt dracones. Quando entramos no campo dos mapas como arte, propaganda política, diagrama de representação complexa ou expressão pura da imaginação, o potencial criativo cresce exponencialmente. Strange Maps reúne alguns dos mais interessantes mapas de várias épocas e géneros, desde os dos tempos em que os locais desconhecidos se sobrepunham às terras conhecidas a cartografias propagandísticas contemporâneas, mapas de locais imaginários, visualizações não convencionais dos mapas tradicionais e até curiosidades geográficas provocadas pelo conflito entre a cartografia e a história política e social. Sabia, por exemplo, que podia existir enclaves, agora quase enclaves, contra-enclaves e contra-contra enclaves... torna-se uma geografia deveras tortuosa. Felizmente não vivo em
  Cooch Behar, supra-sumo da tortuosidade enclavística.
  
  Leve e bem ilustrado, Strange Maps leva-nos numa viagem pelo mundo das curisidades cartográficas.