Reviews

Part autobiography, part celebration of all things geographical, this is a pretty much constantly enjoyable read. You'll learn stuff you never knew you didn't know including that even Ken Jennings doesn't know everything. Well worth the read.

hilse's review against another edition

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3.0

I enjoyed the information on maps/geography/etc., but somewhere past the halfway point I began to wish that Jennings' would give the snarkiness a rest. It began to sound forced, which was a shame, as he used humor wonderfully.

jcpdiesel21's review against another edition

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4.0

A nicely balanced, enjoyable mix of information and humor. Jennings tackles a wide number of facets within the topic of geography though research, interviews and witty writing, even touching on his own love of maps in the process. This book introduced me to many fascinating geographical subcultures and practices such as International Map Collectors' Society, fictional world creation (both for fun and for fantasy writing), Travelers' Century Club, Highpointers Club, roadgeeks, map rallying, geocaching and Degree Confluence Project. It was also neat to learn about the benefits and pitfalls of Google Earth, GPS and Rand McNally road atlases. I greatly enjoyed the chapter covering the National Geographic Bee; I have always felt that this bee never gets the attention that it deserves in comparison to the Scripps National Spelling Bee despite being far more challenging. I found this to be a fun, educational read on par with Jennings' other books.

nglofile's review against another edition

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Sorry, Ken. As much as I enjoy your writing, I can't seem to be grabbed by this one. Perhaps the timing is wrong.

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