{"id":1806609,"date":"2022-03-31T15:23:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1806609"},"modified":"2022-03-31T19:15:46","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T23:15:46","slug":"north-american-maps-for-curious-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/03\/north-american-maps-for-curious-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: North American Maps for Curious Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BookNorth American Maps for Curious Minds<\/strong><\/em>, written by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek and featuring maps and illustrations by Jack Dunnington, is the second book in the Maps for Curious Minds series: Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds<\/a><\/em> came out in 2019, and Wild Maps for Curious Minds<\/a><\/em> is scheduled to come out this fall. The formula appears to be the same across all three books: 100 maps and infographics, divided by theme into chapters. In the case of North American Maps for Curious Minds<\/em>, the 100 maps are sorted into seven chapters: Geography; Politics and Power; Nature; Culture and Sports; People and Populations; Lifestyle and Health; and Industry and Transport.<\/p>\n

The series is a spinoff of the Brilliant Maps<\/a> website, and can be seen as an attempt to render viral map memes in book form: if this book is any indication, the maps themselves are the sort that tend to get shared across social media platforms. One I recognized right away was no. 8: the first country you\u2019ll reach going east or west from every point on the coast. Their appearance between hard covers is to be honest a bit unexpected, and to be honest, the translation from screen to page doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Partly that\u2019s because of the limitations of the media: a book\u2019s page is a fixed size. Maps on paper can\u2019t be interactive, but they also can\u2019t be too crowded or too empty, and to be honest the latter problem is more at play here, with choropleth and pictorial maps that are, to be blunt, too simple, particularly the country-level choropleth maps: when such a map has Canada and the U.S. on it, there\u2019s a lot<\/em> of undifferentiated colour (for example, no. 23 on head of state salaries, no. 27 on military expenditure per capita, nos. 80 and 81 on average height, no. 96 on the unbanked). Such maps would be fine in Instagram-sized proportions, but they don\u2019t scale up. In fact, these country-level choropleths are fine examples of maps that don\u2019t need to be maps<\/a>: they\u2019d be easier to understand, and take up less space, as graphs or tables.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that they\u2019re all<\/em> like that. The best of them go deeper than country or state\/province and offer some real detail. These include the climate maps (nos. 31 and 32) and the supervolcano (no. 38), glacial maximum (no. 39), dark sky (no. 40) and solstice (nos. 43-46) maps\u2014basically, most of the nature chapter. Add to that the county-level maps: second homes (no. 70), language (no. 73), commuting (nos. 94 and 95) and internet access (no. 100).<\/p>\n

The county-level maps, like slightly more than half of the total maps\u201453 out of 100\u2014focus solely on the United States (another two look specifically at Alaska or Hawaii); more than a few of the others include Canada and Mexico but are very much centred on the continental U.S. via the usual Albers projection<\/a>. Basically, the U.S. is in every map, the rest of North America in some of them. To be sure, some of the subjects being mapped are quintessentially American, like the number of Waffle Houses by latitude (no. 76). In other cases the limitation no doubt stems from where the data being mapped comes from, though a more continental focus would be possible in a few cases: I can see no reason to exclude Canada, for example, from the maps of indigenous homelands (nos. 74 and 75). It\u2019s possible to use more than one dataset in a map.<\/p>\n

In the end, these are basically low- to medium-effort maps that present reasonably interesting, but unchallenging, factoids in a pleasant enough format at the intersection of choropleth and pictorial maps. In that, plus its lack of an overarching point other than \u201cisn\u2019t this interesting,\u201d North American Maps for Curious Minds<\/em> is a bit insubstantial. Like a map meme that goes viral, a quick sugar hit of popular cartography, but not much more than that.<\/p>\n

I received a review copy of this book from one of the authors.<\/p>\n

\n

\"BookNorth American Maps for Curious Minds<\/strong><\/a>
\nby Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek
\nThe Experiment<\/a>, 30 Nov 2021
\nAmazon<\/a> (Canada<\/a>, UK<\/a>) | Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North American Maps for Curious Minds, written by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek and featuring maps and illustrations by Jack Dunnington, is the second book in the Maps for Curious Minds series: Brilliant Maps for… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30,433],"class_list":["post-1806609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-choropleth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6035,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/10\/vargics-miscellany-of-curious-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":0},"title":"Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 October 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"In January 2014 a teenage design student from Slovakia named Martin Vargic posted a map of the Internet\u2014inspired, he told The Independent, by the xkcd classic\u2014on his DeviantArt page. The map quickly went viral. Since then, he's been producing maps of all sorts of things\u2014a revised Internet map, a literature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6036,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/11\/gift-guide-map-books-of-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":1},"title":"Gift Guide: Map Books of 2015","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At about this time of the year I assemble a gift guide that lists some of the noteworthy books about maps that have been published this year. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but if someone in your life is just a little bit obsessed about maps (and if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gift Guides"","block_context":{"text":"Gift Guides","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gift-guides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5912,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/londonist-mapped\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":2},"title":"Londonist Mapped","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 November 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Londonist Mapped: Hand Drawn Maps for the Curious Explorer came out last month from AA Publishing. (It'll be out in North America next February.)\u00a0Londonist describes their book thusly: \"The book presents dozens of beautiful maps of the capital, from historic plans to specially commissioned art. Here you'll find maps of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/londonist-mapped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/londonist-mapped.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/londonist-mapped.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/londonist-mapped.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788820,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/05\/the-guardian-interviews-martin-vargic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":3},"title":"The Guardian Interviews Martin Vargic","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 May 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Yesterday\u2019s Guardian had an interview with Slovak designer Martin Vargic, whom you may remember for his 2015 book Vargic\u2019s Miscellany of Curious Maps [Amazon, Bookshop]. In this interview, Vargic talks about his various projects\u2014he\u2019s been doing this since he was eight, and was a teenager when Miscellany was published. One\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/vargic-brittania-detail-1024x833.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/vargic-brittania-detail-1024x833.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/vargic-brittania-detail-1024x833.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/vargic-brittania-detail-1024x833.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1818524,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/09\/a-book-roundup-recent-new-publications\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":4},"title":"A Book Roundup: Recent New Publications","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 September 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"Writing for Geographical magazine, Katherine Parker reviews A History of the World in 500 Maps by Christian Grataloup (Thames & Hudson, 13 Jul 2023), which was originally published in French in 2019. \u201c[E]ven with 500 maps, there\u2019s a selection process at work that may leave some readers wanting for specific\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Book cover: A History of the World in 500 Maps","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/history-world-500-maps-212x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3557,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/12\/review-treasures-from-the-map-room\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806609,"position":5},"title":"Review: Treasures from the Map Room","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 December 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If all maps must necessarily be selective, choosing what to show and what to leave out, surely map books must do the same. That thought came to mind as I perused\u00a0Treasures from the Map Room\u2014no relation\u2014a\u00a0book that presents maps from Oxford University's Bodleian Library,\u00a0collected and curated by the Bodleian Map\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"treasures-map-room-oblique","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/treasures-map-room-oblique-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806609"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806627,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806609\/revisions\/1806627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}