I was a geography wonk as a young person.    My room’s walls were covered with National Geographic Maps.    I scrutinized atlases and memorized countries, capitals, and natural features.   I practiced drawing maps from memory.   Social studies was my favorite subject and in high school I aced geography and history, then got scholarships in both.   I took geography at UBC, but ended up with majors in philosophy, English, and history.   As a teacher I spent a lot of time teaching geography and history, trying to make it come alive for kids.   Throughout these years and ever since, I have sustained an interest in geography and added cartography, natural history, and navigation to my toolbox.    I competed in orienteering, using a map and compass.   When the technology was available I became proficient at the use of a GPS.   Later in life, I integrated map-making, navigation, websites,  use of Google Earth, and writing about places, making my own maps in support of articles.

When I saw that there was a New York Times bestseller called Maphead, I immediately ordered it.    I read it quickly and found it to be light, accessible and fun to read.   Ken Jennings covered a number of topics in separate chapters that I had not anticipated: map collectors, maps of fictional places, geocaching, the Travelers Century Club, Geography bees, Roadgeeks, and other map-related topics.

There must be something innate about maps, about this one specific way of picturing our world and our relation to it, that charms us, calls to us, won’t let us look anywhere else in the room if there’s a map on the wall.

My favorite part of the book was the first section that talks about how some of our brains are wired spatially, that is with a sense of direction, geometry, and a visual sense of topography.    I have always been that way and maps make a lot of sense to me.   When we were learning to orienteer, we practiced map memory techniques.   We visualized a map for one minute determining a route, then we left the map behind and ran the course from memory, interpreting what we saw (hill, gully, ridge, etc.) along the way.   When I hike I have the map in my mind and make the connections on the route.

Maphead is still a good read for regular folks too.    The author writes it with a general audience in mind.    Geography wonks, though, will really connect with this book.

Here is an interview with Ken Jennings: