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By Ken Jennings
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“I admit—I’m a geographic klutz, constantly turned around the wrong way. But I never felt lost for a moment inside Maphead. Forget new worlds: Jennings’s charming, witty account reveals a whole other universe.” —Sam Kean, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Disappearing Spoon
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 bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee 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 the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.
About the Author
Ken Jennings, best known as the winner of 74 games on the television show Jeopardy! is the bestselling author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs and Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a double major in English and computer science and worked as a software engineer prior to his Jeopardy! appearances; following his Jeopardy! streak, he has appeared on 1 vs. 100 and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where he has served several times as an "Ask the Expert" lifeline, and has been a guest on The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Sesame Street, and other shows. Ken lives outside Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.
Product Details
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Scribner (September 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439167176
ISBN-13: 978-1439167175
Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches
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