Product Description

'My name is Mike and I am a map addict. There, it's said!' Maps not only show the world, they help it turn. On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: checking the A-Z, the road atlas or the Sat Nav, scanning the tube or bus map, a quick Google online or hours wasted flying over a virtual Earth, navigating a way around a shopping centre, watching the weather forecast, planning a walk or a trip, catching up on the news, booking a holiday or hotel. Maps pepper logos, advertisements, illustrations, books, web pages and newspaper and magazine articles: they are a cipher for every area of human existence. At a stroke, they convey precise information about topography, layout, history, politics and power. They are the unsung heroes of life: Map Addict sings their song. There are some fine, dry tomes out there about the history and development of cartography: this is not one of them. Map Addict mixes wry observation with hard fact and considerable research, unearthing the offbeat, the unusual and the downright pedantic in a celebration of all things maps.In Map Addict, we learn the location of what has officially been named by the OS as the most boring square kilometre in the land; we visit the town fractured into dozens of little parcels of land split between two different countries and trek around many other weird borders of Britain and Europe; we test the theories that the new city of Milton Keynes was built to a pagan alignment and that women can't read maps. Combining history, travel, politics, memoir and oblique observation in a highly readable, and often very funny, style, Mike Parker confesses how his own impressive map collection was founded on a virulent teenage shoplifting habit, ponders how a good leftie can be so gung-ho about British cartographic imperialism and wages a one-man war against the moronic blandishments of the Sat Nav age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1600 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
"Most of all, this is a witty entreaty to leave the satnav in the car, and to head for the hills with the Ordnance Survey." --BBC Country File magazine, June issue

Review
'A highly engaging and thoughtful, haphazard and personal, meander around maps and map-related arcana'

Review
'This is a book that's well worth a read'

Customer Reviews

Paid for the holiday ... and missed other maps varieties out
Mike has put together a lot of interesting information on the esteemed organisation that is The Ordnance Survey. That was an enjoyable read as were some of his younger days.

While unclear if you should write about stealing maps, you did get left with the feeling that Mike went around Europe having a good time, but failed to talk about the map-habits of the locals or what maps they produce. Where was discussion on map makers of Eastern or Southern Europe?

Mike also missed out the effects of other maps produced. For example, the aviation maps used today are pure works of art. Look at a 1:500,000 map for the UK and it's a highly compressed view of the UK's airspace - in glorious Technicolor.

So while a good start, you're left feeling there were opportunities lost. If you want to know more about travelling around Europe, buy something from Lonely Planet or similar.

map addiction
An interesting book for anyone who can spend hours pouring over a map.
Read it. But have google earth and the internet on hand to locate the images and maps in question. Brings it to life.

Good, but wanders off the map a bit too much
I enjoyed this book, it's entertainingly written and has numerous interesting facts and witty observations. I would recommend it for anyone who is vaguely interested in maps or geography, you don't have to be a map addict to enjoy it.

However, I agree with others that it can be somewhat frustrating since the author seems to digress too often. You can end up in the middle of a chapter wondering how on earth you got to where you are, since the connections to the map theme seem to be receding into the distance. On the journey through the book, Mike Parker seems to have left the map behind, and instead taken the reader on a disorientating unplanned wander, which is often interesting and fun but not where you thought you were going.