This book redefines what we think of when we think of maps. It included some more common maps that reflect the geographic lay out of areas, but also maps focused on science or sociological information. With such an eclectic variety of topics, I would say this book is guaranteed to have some maps that draw each person in. I found that I was greatly interested in some of the maps (for example: a map outlining the safest places for women in NYC), but not as interested in others (such as those that were more focused on science). I think this would be a great reference book for a hotel lobby or doctor's office since anyone who picks it up would likely find some information of interest to them. Unfortunately, that is a bit of reason for my lower star rating as I use my star ratings to reflect how much I enjoyed the entirety of a book. This book definitely has it's place though!

i love maps and the ones that highlight various perspectives and situations across the world and the descriptions helped a lot

40 maps that will change how you see the world by Alastair Bennett was an inspiring read that takes you head-first into looking at the world from 40 different perspectives that you didn’t know existed. In a world driven by capitalism, I believe that this is a powerful tool to make people push their limitations on reimagining their realities and their places in the world. It is also a strong reminder of where we come from and a cautionary sign at looking up to see where the world as we know is toppling towards. This changed me and my thinking and got me out of my creative slump. It’s a beautiful book and I am grateful that someone made the effort to put this out into the world.

A book that certainly starts out for the mapreaders in amongst us – and by which I mean those who pore over maps for the pleasure, not for the finding their way home or to the nearest petrol station or 'Too Good To Go' outlet. This is for those who consider how we as a species learnt which way was up, and welcome the mind being expanded just as the geography of what is known did all those centuries ago, and those who always wondered what exactly 'here be monsters' would result in.

It's not perfect – the very first map is from 6000BC and therefore probably isn't nine thousand years old, as claimed, unless my afternoon kip today was a lot longer than I thought. It's still a wonderful portrait of a prehistoric town, though. Ptolemy attempts the UK, and the text says something is Ynys Mon – Anglesey, when it might just as well be the Isle of Man and the evidence that it's not that is cried out for. The book states Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 – yeah, it was a few years before that, and therefore a later chapter on how Google fudges its maps for whichever national market it's selling them to, is, well, fudged.

Also, the maps get to be created in the last couple of years surprisingly quickly. This is certainly not something like those history round-ups called something approaching "40 xx that Changed the World". With a schema for, as example, Africa's Great Green Wall, where trees will slow the Saharan spread, it's more like "40 Illustrations of Major Things that Might End Up Meaning a Lot". This is no museum gallery of major past maps, as the maps are too current and only what they pictorialise would ever be in a museum, not they themselves.

That's not to say they have little interest, in some form or other. Some are very right-on-sociology-professor-friendly, such as noise maps and a chart of how comfortable NYC is to walk in as a female. Someone has done that thing with a GPS, not to outline a certain image through a bike ride, but to portray his every movement over fifteen years. We see the stretch of man as we consider Mars, and then Titan, and then the mahoosive-and-then-some structures of the universe. We've always wanted to know what it is we're looking at, and of course to name it and claim it at the same time in case it makes us rich, and this is an interesting look at what that has meant, pictorially. Forty maps, forty two-paged mini-essays, and extra imagery, is the basic result. It's not flawless, but it does let us wonder generally without blunder, so four stars is close enough.

We take maps for granted. They appear on demand on computers and phones, always familiar, recognizable and standardized. Alastair Bonnett, a maps expert who has written several books about them, has collected 40 far from ordinary maps to inspire, amaze, and educate. His latest, 40 Maps That Will Change How You See The World is a visual delight, a cerebral challenge, and comes with a wealth of research and background facts.

The maps are arranged from highly detailed on earth to the extremes of outer space. Some of the early ones are shocking for their accuracy and sophistication. For example, this Chinese map from 1137 AD is divided into a grid for easy reference, and details rivers (the Yellow and the Yangtze) with all their krinkles, plus lakes with extremely accurate shapes, that make the whole effect as excellent as a satellite shot today. It has taken another thousand years for the rest of the world to produce the same level of accuracy and sophistication. And if that weren’t enough, the map is carved in stone, so that multiple copies can be made at any time, by rubbing parchment or paper over the stone. An early mimeograph, if you will. And finally, the other side of the stone has a map carved into it as well.

It appears in a chapter that also features a map of the south Pacific as a collection of assembled curved sticks, with white seashells attached to them representing the islands travelers will encounter on their journeys. Until the appearance of standardized road maps, maps could take the shape of anything the designer wanted.

Since nothing was standardized, there are maps that are way out there, such as these wooden carvings. They are actually a two part map. The one on the left represents a strip of the coast of Greenland, on the eastern side, with its indentations and fjords. The one on the right represents offshore islands from the same stretch of coast. It is modern art meets local cartography, and it is beautiful. They date from 1885.

And as long we’re talking non-standardized, here is a section of a most unusual Aztec map in the collection. It not only lays out places, but features important people and their hierarchy in the Empire. It doesn’t stick with standard overhead visualizations. The two sort of basins at the bottom are cutaway views of important rivers flowing through, complete with fish frolicking. Plus there is history to take into account. It is a very busy work of art. It’s how the Aztecs thought of describing their physical empire.

There are several maps featuring Antarctica, the most mysterious continent on earth. They position it in the center of the map of the world, or project what it will look like after the ice melts and the oceans rise, and so on. There is neverending fascination with this new tourist attraction. Bonnett says more than a hundred thousand tourists visit each year, and two-thirds of the ship traffic there is vacation cruise ships. There is a big concern over invasive species travelling with people and ships, because Antarctica has nothing in the way of defenses against them. And, as anywhere Man goes, garbage is piling up.

There are maps showing noise levels, internet connectivity, surface temperatures and fungal networks connecting trees in a forest. The one on noise is quite affecting, as readers learn that 80% of New Yorkers suffer from hearing loss because the ambient noise level is so high. I remember when I moved there, I counted 22 different sources of noise just stepping outside the front door. After a while, it all becomes one, or no one could stand it. I bought earplugs by the case, at a time when that was a really difficult thing to do, and no one else did. Today you can get them in any corner store.

There is a map of Africa divided into countries based on tribal areas instead of the endless straight lines drawn by the British before they abandoned the continent and let the locals slug it out, as they are still doing. Another map of Africa is upside down, because people’s orientation is not to the north as most maps imply by having it at the top, presumably ranking white Europe is as the highest order.

Some of the maps aren’t really maps, but are beautiful nonetheless. There is one that is a scanning electron microscopic view of a one millimeter wide section of a human cerebral cortex. It shows a forest of neurons reaching up and out in all directions, and the floor is a dense, tight mess of interconnections. They are falsely color-coded by function. It was taken in 2022.

Once Bonnett leaves the planet, anything is fair game, from the biggest mountain (extinct volcano) on Mars, to the huge liquid methane lake on Jupiter’s moon Titan, to the closing image, which locates the Milky Way galaxy (ie. our own galaxy) as hiding with numerous others in our region under a tiny red dot. The red dot, center-right, shows that even our whole galaxy is a totally insignificant spot in an inconceivably gigantic super cluster. Scientists now think the universe is organized into these kinds of superclusters, and is not composed of randomly found, free floating galaxies, solar systems and solo stars and planets. The structures are so huge we have only recently figured out that they exist as cohesive entities that make sense in the arrangement of the universe.

In other words, 40 Maps That Will Change The Way You See The World is no exaggeration. It is dramatic, useful, and beautiful.

David Wineberg

s well-written. https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-learned-thousand-nonfiction-ebook/dp/B07Z48VQMT/

I've always loved looking at maps, so this title was intriguing. It contains a mix of maps, some ancient/historical and some modern. The modern maps often illustrate a concept (e.g., ancestry of population by county in the US). However, there are others that seemed a little out of place. The "map" of the Dismantling of Shinjuku Station looks more like an architectural drawing than a map. The "map" of the Global Flow of Internet Traffic looks more like modern art than a map (a key on the same page might be useful). Some of the maps were indeed examples that might "change how you see the world." (e.g., the noise map of Mexico City or the map illustrating the effects of rising sea levels on the European continent). Each map is accompanied by a 2 page description. There are lots of interesting facts to keep the map-lover's interest.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance review copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This was interesting read with an assortment of maps and a bit of history about each one. One of the interesting ones was the “Universal Map” from Japan. They took their cue from Europe so to modern day people it sounds crazy that they thought when a woman gave birth, it didn’t hurt. Or that there were giants. But Japan had no contact with the outside world for hundreds of years. It’s interesting what people thought as fact back then that today we wouldn’t believe. Another map is the Women’s Walkability Map for NYC. It shows areas that are safe to walkthrough and other areas that one would be putting oneself in danger if walking through that area. There’s a US National Walkability Index that shows how the US looks in terms of safe walking areas.

I love maps, but I will never look at maps the same way again. When I studied geology, we learned about different kinds of maps that could show different physical characteristics. The people who made the maps in this book decided what kind of information they wanted to show with their maps, and sometimes that information had nothing to do with the actual physical space.
Perspective has changed over the years, too, and what we know. It's always been fascinating to me that people in the past could create such accurate maps without modern technology, but these maps show how ingenious people can really be.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

This is an interesting and innovative book. It would have been easier to follow if the text had been on a page facing the image. The way it’s formatted, with the map on an overleaf and the text on a two-page spread, I found it difficult to read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

The title of the book makes a bold claim that it didn't live up to. I liked the historic maps but there were a lot of types of map included and there didn't seem to be any consistent reasoning behind which ones were picked; it was more, "this is a map, this is why it is cool", but the accompanying text wasn't that interesting. I found the book disappointing.

A perfect gift for anyone curious about the world. The maps collected here will surprise anyone, no matter how well read. Beautiful illustrations are combined with short essays explaining what makes each one special - and bear in mind that even the definition of what one considers a map is challenged here. Great idea and great execution.

Thanks to the publisher, Quarto Publishing Group – Ivy Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This was a very beautiful book that definitely changed my perspective after seeing the different maps.

I had heard about several of the things mentioned and shown in the book myself, but it was an awesome eye-opener to share with my tween, and it also gave us so much to talk about for several weeks. Although some of the info feels like random facts just added to the book because the author had come across those, overall it’s a great source of various bits and pieces of information. And, the more you know – no matter what the subject – the more you know, you know.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ivy Press for my copy of 40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World by ALASTAIR BONNETT
This is a fascinating book that makes you rethink what you already know.
I have been dipping in and out of this since I was lucky enough to receive my copy and I truly believe this book will be by my side for many years to come.

Thank you to the author, Quarto Publishing Group – Ivy Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this book intrigued me, as I enjoy maps, as well as getting new perspectives on familiar things, but I definitely found this book a mixed bag. The historical maps give the reader insight into the view of the earth the people/nation that created the map had, which is fascinating. The other maps were a collection that wasn't in any way coherent, but seemed to be whatever the author came across - some interesting to me, others not at all interesting or much too nerdy for my taste. Some of the accompanying texts were very good, others seemed a bit too simplistic, but if you like maps you may enjoy this book. Overall, it didn't really work for me.

A new way of looking at the world

The appeal for this book is obvious. It will interest people into art, illustration, design, geography, history and cartography. Each map has its dedicated picture and long form text over two pages. It’s like visiting a museum of maps, with each map given history, context and reasons why it is important. It’s packed full of curious facts and references, and placed in the context of how it relates or differs from the modern day.

The tone is very much like the introductions to exhibitions. I enjoyed this book as I would a trip to a museum, only the book allows the time to stand before each map, only in a relaxed setting of your own home. It brings together maps from many continents and periods that you couldn’t see in one place.

It’s an accessible book and enjoyed reading it cover to cover in two sittings.

This book would also appeal to someone who enjoys long form journalism or national geographic magazine.

For me my favourite maps were the stick chart of the Marshall Islands and the carved maps of Greenland. Sculptural artworks that contain information for the right observer. I also liked the idea that they could be made for oneself, with information specific about them or their experience.

My mind was blown when I read that Google maps shows boarders differently depending on where the user is, eg northern Cyprus is just the northern part of Cyprus for the world aside from turkey who gets to see it called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus following the landing of Turkish troops in 1974. The same is true for Chinese and Russian audiences for land they’ve claimed that the rest of the world doesn’t acknowledge.


I also enjoyed that these maps are not earth centric, we travel out to Mars and the moon Titan before zooming right out to the strands of the universe.

“Only maps can move mountains”

I have a degree in maps so this book was a must read for me. This book features 40 the each tell a unique story. Some are scientific, some are estimations for the future, some are data driven, some are divine, some are political, some are a snapshot into the past, and some are fake. Each map is accompanied by an explanation of when, where, and how it was created as well as insight to its literal and cultural meanings. The descriptions are easy to read and the photos of the maps are absolutely beautiful. the book is easy to flip through and find the maps that interest you and does not need to be read linearly. Several of the map I was familiar with, but a lot were new to me. The map of the world centering the ocean surrounded by land was one I recognized from college and it never ceases to send me into an existential crisis.

I really enjoy maps but this book is a mixed bag. If you like historical maps there are eight of them covered. It shows the view of the earth the people or nation that created the map knew about. It gives you a glimpse into the time period. I’m often amazed when I look at historical maps at how much of the world was known and recognizable. The other maps are more eclectic covering things like; who owns Alaska, modern China train map, women friendly map of NYC, noise maps of Mexico City. My interest was mixed. Some were very interesting and worth reading the attached text, others didn’t catch my interest. The author also shows some personal bias in the text writing. It is the kind of book that you can flip through and find things that interest you and does not have to be read straight through. I’m giving a lukewarm recommendation if you like maps. And it may change how you see the world just as the title says.

Thank you Ivy Press and NetGalley for the eARC of 40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World! All opinions in this review are my own.

This book was absolutely fascinating! While 40 maps may not seem like a lot, they span from the ancient world to today to even outer space! It even covers issues like women's safety in New York City, the rise of tourism in Antartica, and what Europe will look like if all of the ice in the world melts. I do wish some of the explanations delved a little deeper into the topics they were covering because some of the maps were so interesting, but I do understand that this is supposed to be more of a visual representation. Overall, this is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in how your perspective can change when shown something that you might already know in a new way!

A mixed bag: some maps and accompanying texts were fascinating, some not so much. Some statements seemed too simplistic but I’m not an expert. Overall, I don’t think the selection works well together and complement each other, so it’s not a book you need to read from start to finish. The book was also rather difficult to read in ebook format and would certainly work better as a physical coffee table book. The text was tiny and weirdly formated.