A review by alexmusic
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings

slow-paced

3.0

As a map person I had high expectations. I was a bit disappointed in the people he interviewed. It came off a bit like map loving was a boy’s club. I was unsatisfied when he tried to tackle the disparity between genders and he went for the “boys were hunters and girls were gatherers” explanation based on… nothing really. As a geography student, this field is extremely diverse. The gender gap is self-reinforcing after centuries of keeping women out of science and exploration. Anyways, there were some very cool facts and revelations but also some completely unnecessary ramblings. This is maybe nitpicking but if you think you need footnotes in a book, you probably don’t. It’s either important enough to include in the main text or unnecessary to include at all. In this book it was mostly the latter. Overall, was somewhat enjoyable to read but nothing special.