Brilliant Maps: An Atlas for Curious Minds

Product Information

With just an introduction followed by a collection of maps, this is less of a 'read' than a 'look', book. Divided into categories (People & Population, Religion and Politics, Culture, Geography, History etc), and then a colour coded map - usually of the world, and to illustrate a specific things - some general, some very specific. Which nations have North Korean embassies? Which region has the highest number of death metal bands per capita? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the 'wrong' side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild?

The maps in this book explore many aspects from average female height in nations to which countries have relations with North Korea and Israel. There is also a map that displays the languages of India and the original plan for its partition. There are maps of trading partners and countries with a GPD greater than California. Wright presents an informative and entertaining look at the political, cultural, economic, and geographical aspects of our planet using only maps and legends. In Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds, you’ll learn all this and much more. One hundred visually arresting maps strike a balance between sobering analysis (number of executions by state) and whimsical insight (the countries of the world where there aren’t any McDonald’s). Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds, 100 New Ways to See the World by Ian Wright. I loved this book! Ian compiled 100 different maps of the world that each showed the world in a different way. The book is divided into nine categories including: People and Populations, Friends and Enemies, Geography, and Nature. The maps were all very colorful and showed off some unique ideas. Now, using the “exact” proportion of sub-Saharan and Caribbean (in the case of Netherlands/UK) descended Our diversity across the planet has lead to a lot of different culture and customs, and know who drives on the wrong side of the road and writes the date wrong is useful if unimportant information.The largest source of imports by country, shown by coloring the importing country to look like the country doing the importing’s flag

It's an interesting book, showing a number of interesting and surprising map-based statistics like who drives on which side of the road or what countries lost the most people in each world war or how much sunlight does each country get? A lot of good stuff. A pity it wasn't presented a bit better. Mike Higgins has more than 20 years experience editing and writing for news media organisations and publishers such as the Independent, Guardian, Telegraph, Lonely Planet, and Conde Nast. He lives in London. In the foreword, Wright explained that he defined "popular" as "the most talked-about maps, the ones that seemed especially to strike a nerve with readers." Some of these maps went viral. Unsurprisingly, maps having to do with politics and national identity were some of the most popular over the last five years. Which nations have North Korean embassies? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the “wrong” side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild?

Customer reviews

Data was incomplete. Sometimes the maps just raised more questions about the research. One map, for example, compares homicide statistics among certain countries (randomly? I assume?). The data goes by number of deaths, but it doesn’t show the number as a percentage of the total population, so naturally, the more populous countries tend to have more deaths by any cause, because they have more people in the first place. This doesn’t help me understand anything about the countries’ safety or violence levels. Another map, comparing the U.S. and Europe, shows murder stats as percentages, which would have been more meaningful if two-thirds of it weren’t shades of blue. As before, I couldn’t tell them apart. With maps the cover the entire globe, Wild Maps will delight lovers of maps and lovers of nature, as well as anyone with an interest in all that is fascinating and awe-inspiring in the world around us. Beautifully designed and illustrated, Wild Maps is an eye-opening celebration of our planet and the planets and animals whom we share it.

Sources for the data: Sources and latest available data: UK Census (2011), destatis.de (2019), Eurostat (2019), Russian Registrar (2019), dmsu.gov.ua (2019), scb.se (2019), Irish Census (2016), demo.istat.it (2019), opendata.cbs.nl (2019), ssb.no (2019), statbank.dk (2020), stat.fi (2019), migracje.gov.pl (2018) and ine.es (2019). Data was unclear. It’s definitely more for entertainment than for information. One of the maps, for example, shows different statistics, each in a shade of pink. Okay, it’s a very pretty map, but I have no idea which of the 6 or so almost-identical shades I’m looking at for any given country. Cute, but not helpful. There were several like this, where the data was illegible. Sadly, we do spend a lot of time arguing at personal and national levels. In Friends and Enemies, you can discover who the UK have not invaded, and who the Vikings invaded. Countries are not regular shapes, but the longest, Chile would reach from Spain to Norway and is just over 100 miles wide. There is a map showing just how many continents could fit inside the Pacific Ocean and how many roads actually lead to Rome. There are a zillion ways to present data graphically - from straightforward x/y graphs to wildly creative artistic renderings. This book hews to the middle path and succeeds admirably.

Colour

These North American maps didn't excite me quite as much as those in the related Brilliant…, but that’s not to say it was hard to find favorites. For graphic design enthusiasts, compulsive Wikipedia readers and those looking for the sort of gift they buy for someone else and wind up keeping for themselves, this book will change the way you see the world and your place in it. Data was misleading. For example, one of the maps showed only four countries that don’t use the metric system. The U.S. was one of them. Only, here’s the thing: I live in the U.S., and this country uses the metric system in official capacities all the time. It’s taught in public schools, even to the youngest grades, and it’s the standard for any American working in science, medicine, or the military. Even our currency is based on the metric system, which I don’t think the case in every nation. So I’m not clear whether the author’s information is wrong, or whether he meant that all the other countries on their map no longer use any non-metric system. And it’s one thing to use the metric system—which we absolutely do—it’s another thing to abandon a different system altogether. If there aren’t any remnants left of other measuring systems in the whole world except for 4 nations, well, that’s really very sad. Enjoyment of this book is going to vary from reader to reader, but North American Maps for Curious Minds is overall intriguing and informative--and very easy to get lost in. Despite not totally loving it, I still feel enthusiastic in recommending this, and I look forward to possibly more books from brilliantmaps.com in the future. This simple book serves the schoolroom for all ages, the coffee table of any household, the shelf in any library, and a font of wonderfulness for any trivia gamer.” — New York Journal of Books

My top two were “The can’t-miss trees of North America” “The greatest dinosaur finds in North America” There were a few poor colour choices, where there wasn't enough contrast to easily recognise the difference, but for the most part these were well presented. There was enough good information interspersed with the quirky to keep me interested. Great information but I got more and more frustrated as I went along. Although there are few words other than the legend and title, I nearly marked this a could-not-finish—it was that aggravating. A few others I liked were “City names, then and now” “Number of second homes per unhoused person” “Indigenous homelands in 1491” “Median age by state” “Quality of life, happiness, and well-being in North America” “COVID-19 anxiety and depression” “Endangered or threatened species that live entirely within one state”Overall, I liked this book but didn’t love it. This is partly due to personal preference, but objectively speaking, some of the maps just don’t have enough factual variation for the map format to be an ideal choice. “Who pays the most for their military?” is in three colors and can be viewed in seconds. “How fast recreational marathon runners finish a marathon by state” differs by just a few seconds for the vast majority of states. “The highest-paid public employee by state” is dominated by blue (for college-head football coach). And some, such as a map showing every show The Beatles played in America, seem arbitrary and not only don’t require the map format but would be better served as simple lists. There is a lot more that I could say here, but I don’t want to take away from the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.

1. Gustav Klimt

Quirkiness. It has serious elements such as casualties from wars, but it also has some unabashedly bizarre entries, such as the one titled “Chile is a ridiculously long country.” Graphics can be powerful in getting across important information and I love how Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds relays information so effectively without being at all text-heavy. I wish this were a never-ending book. I'm sure other map-lovers would feel exactly the same. We live on a strange and beautiful planet. It is full of history, geology, people place and countries and if you’re anything like me, I find facts and figures endlessly fascinating. The best way of quantifying this data is to put it in graphical form, and Ian Wright has done this in Brilliant Maps. There's just so much data that can be presented on a map. My husband and I had Valentine's Day dinner at home, and is there any greater testament to the patience he has for me than the fact that he let me pull out this book when we finished eating and explain my very favorite maps to him? Which countries have had a female leader in the last 50 years and how long was a female the head of the government