Interesting book that I've been talking about with people I know from very early on. Went off on some tangents in the middle. Still, I learned a lot

"How the brain helps us to understand and navigate space—and why, sometimes, it doesn’t work the way it should.


Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have—older than language. In Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do.


Fueled by his own spatial shortcomings, Kemp describes the brain regions that orient us in space and the specialized neurons that do it. Place cells. Grid cells. He examines how the brain plans routes, recognizes landmarks, and makes sure we leave a room through a door instead of trying to leave through a painting. From the secrets of supernavigators like the indigenous hunters of the Bolivian rainforest to the confusing environments inhabited by people with place blindness, Kemp charts the myriad ways in which we find our way and explains the cutting-edge neuroscience behind them.


How did Neanderthals navigate? Why do even seasoned hikers stray from the trail? What spatial skills do we inherit from our parents? How can smartphones and our reliance on GPS devices impact our brains? In engaging, engrossing language, Kemp unravels the mysteries of navigating and links the brain’s complex functions to the effects that diseases like Alzheimer’s, types of amnesia, and traumatic brain injuries have on our perception of the world around us.


A book for anyone who has ever felt compelled to venture off the beaten path, Dark and Magical Places is a stirring reminder of the beauty in losing yourself to your surroundings. And the beauty in understanding how our brains can guide us home."

Missed the mark for me. I don't feel much more informed than I would have reading a condensed version in Science Today.

Thank you Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for access to this arc.

When I saw this book and read the description, I knew I’d found my people. Or, it turns out, some of the interviewees and scientists are my tribe while others are the ones blessed with navigational abilities I can only dream of. Kemp (my tribe) might be worse than I am but he writes in an engaging style and makes the subject matter easy to follow. A wide variety of various researchers and scientists shared their wisdom and findings and Kemp turned all this into a highly readable book.

The studies being done to probe into the still vast secrets of the brain are amazing and what is being discovered is – pardon the pun – mind blowing. I will take with me for a long time the image of a German scientist chasing after ants in the desert (he even managed to put little blackout goggles on them at one point) as well as the GPS fails that, among others, led a woman to drive for 900 miles when her journey was only supposed to take 40. The life altering effects of brain damage (not being able to find the bathroom in your own home or even find your home) are tragic. Age-old ways and means of navigating seemingly unfathomable places are being lost to technology. Studying Neanderthal genes is leading to increases in understanding of how differently they may have viewed the world compared to the upstart Homo Sapiens.

If you’re thinking of trying a hike in the wilderness – take your charged phone, a compass, a map, (and know how to use them) and let someone know where you’re going. The bad news is that we all (well, maybe not Scandinavians as they are navigating rock stars) need to work on our spatial skills as they are always deteriorating. The good news is that those of us who are helpless and hopeless at finding our way around can improve our skills (without relying totally on GPS). B

Once, driving with a friend from Rochester to New Orleans, I woke for my turn at the wheel to have my friend excitedly tell me we’d been making great time, as we were “less than an hour from Philadelphia.” Considering when we had left home, it was indeed “great time,” I told him. Unfortunately, I also had to tell him that Philadelphia was not even close to on the way to New Orleans, and that he’d been speeding in the wrong direction for the last few hours. Similarly, on another trip down south, I woke up to my wife very proudly informing me we were just coming into the city limits. Which would have been wonderful news, save for the minor detail that the city was Louisville, and we were going to Lexington.

I learned two things from these (and multiple other similar situations either driving or hiking). One, don’t ever fall asleep. Two, not everyone has the same sense of their place in the world as I do.

In Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation, Christopher Kemp tries to find out why that is. Why some people, like me or his wife, have an unerring sense of place and direction and others, like him and my wife and friend, have no idea at any given point where they are in relation to where they’re trying to go. In fact, Kemp’s spatial sense is so bad, he tells us in the introduction, that he is “permanently lost … If I were blindfolded and taken just a few block from my house … I’d be as lost as if I’d suddenly teleported to the outskirts of Reykjavik. It takes me only a few moments to become disoriented… Theme parks. Cities. My own street. Megastores … I’m lost all the time.”

What follows is a fascinating tour through the various parts of the brain and body (but mostly the brain) that work together to allow us to navigate our way through the world. Most of the work, it turns out, is done in the hippocampus, a small structure deep in the brain, which is heavily involved in memory (no surprise), but also in the creation of a “cognitive map”, which Kemp describes as “a model of the world; a record engine, an instruction manual; a pattern detector.” In one little tidbit you may have seen reported in the media, London cab drivers, who famously have to spend years memorizing all 25, 000 plus streets for a test known as “The Knowledge”, have much larger hippocampi than most people, including London bus drivers, who only have to learn a few routes.

Kemp also introduces us to “place cells” that fire to represent a specific location, head-direction cells that do just what you think based on their name, grid cells that create “a precise coordinate system, the same geometric … pattern whether I’m walking around my house or through a busy grocery store,” and several other specialized structures in the brain that contribute to navigational skill.

Just as fascinating as the anatomy are the various methods researchers use in their studies of humans and animals, the evolution of the various structures that make up our navigation system, and the ways in which the system can fail. Including how our technology, particularly GPS, has degraded our abilities. Some of these explorations come via clearly explained academic studies, others through more narrative style reporting, as when Kemp offers up stories of people who followed their GPS into the ocean, onto railroad tracks, into a swamp, etc. or who stepped off a hiking trail just far enough to relieve themselves or take a small rest and who then couldn’t find their way back to the trail only a few yards away. Some of these ended, if not happily, at least positively, as with the story that frames the book — Amanda Eller getting lost for 17 days in Makawao Forest Reserve in Hawaii before being spotted by a rescue copter. Other stories, sadly, end more tragically, as with Geraldine Largay left the Appalachian Trail in Maine to go to the bathroom, couldn’t find her way back to the trail, and died some time after, her body not found until two years later in a makeshift camp three different search teams had come within a hundred yards of.

The science in the book is detailed, but as Kemp notes in the intro this is not a textbook; it’s not dumbed down, but rather simplified and abridged. And as detailed and complicated as the navigational process is, Kemp is never anything but lucid, organized, methodical, up-to-date, (a number of cites are from 2019-2021) and clarifying. He also is good about making clear when scientists have direct evidence leading to a consensus solid conclusion and when researchers are detailing still-to-be-confirmed (or even agreed to) theories. The one place I thought the speculation or theorizing ran a little (and just a little) too far beyond the evidence was the discussion of the differences between we Homo sapiens and our close cousins the Neanderthals. But that was a minor quibble, if that.

Meanwhile, the science is perfectly balanced with the personal stories that pepper the work, and especially Kemp’s descriptions of his own major problems with navigation, which often add a welcome lighter tone amidst the more tragic or potentially tragic. This was a totally new topic for me, and I came away much more knowledgeable about the topic and with a clear, cogent understanding of the basic process of how we find our place in the world (at least, physically). I highly a lot, read the notes, and copy and pasted links for further reading- — all reliable signs of a strong non-fiction work. Strongly recommended.
4.5

The subtitle to this book is actually the main subject of “Dark and Magical Places”. Focus on “The Neuroscience of Navigation” because you will read a lot about how different parts of the brain are involved in how we find our way around. The author, Christopher Kemp, admits that he has gotten lost driving in his own neighborhood; passed his own house. Kemp tells the stories of people who have gotten lost and were never found alive again. And some who were found weeks later, alive. The questions is, “Why are some people clueless about navigating their world and others have no problems whatsoever?” Neuroscientists have done research, which is ongoing, on this question and discovered brain regions that work together to help us navigate. Much of the book takes concentration to really grasp the discussions on the brain but you will find that one of the tips to being a better navigator is to pay attention. Read the book and do both.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All of the opinions given are my own and have been given nothing for my review.