On My Wishlist (8)

On My Wishlist é uma rubrica semanal, organizada pela Carolyn do blog Book Chick City, na qual irei listar as novas adições à minha lista de desejos, quer se tratem de novidades ou de clássicos.

Hoje recebi a newsletter com as novidades do site Library Thing. Uma das coisas que imediatamente me chamou a atenção foi a entrevista com o autor Ken Jennings, não por já conhecer o autor, mas porque o livro em questão é um livro sobre mapas. Para quem não sabe, sou geógrafa e a minha paixão por mapas já vem de há muito, muito tempo. Por isso não pude deixar de adicionar o referido livro à minha wishlist. 

Acabei por me relembrar de um outro título que já está na minha wishlist há bastante tempo e que aproveito, também, para incluir nesta rubrica.

Título: Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
Autor: Ken Jennings
Sinopse: 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.

Título: How to Lie with Maps
Autor: Mark Monmonier
Sinopse: Originally published to wide acclaim, this lively, cleverly illustrated essay on the use and abuse of maps teaches us how to evaluate maps critically and promotes a healthy skepticism about these easy-to-manipulate models of reality. Monmonier shows that, despite their immense value, maps lie. In fact, they must. The second edition is updated with the addition of two new chapters, 10 color plates, and a new foreword by renowned geographer H. J. de Blij. One new chapter examines the role of national interest and cultural values in national mapping organizations, including the United States Geological Survey, while the other explores the new breed of multimedia, computer-based maps. To show how maps distort, Monmonier introduces basic principles of mapmaking, gives entertaining examples of the misuse of maps in situations from zoning disputes to census reports, and covers all the typical kinds of distortions from deliberate oversimplifications to the misleading use of color.