Atlas of the Unexpected

This is a fascinating book chock full of interesting information about things you never knew you were dying to know! Perfect for every trivia lover! The photos and maps are a wonderful addition in this awe-inspiring collection of informative and well-written articles.

I was enthralled with Atlas Obscura, and this book is much in the same vein, with little known places explored and explained. Like the aforementioned book, there are no color photographs, only a few black and white pictures, so this book is more about the text, but no less fascinating for it

“Atlas of the Unexpected: Haphazard discoveries, chance places and unimaginable destinations” is a totally fascinating read, different from any book I’ve ever seen. In a gorgeous high-end package, it reveals the most bizarre and amazing discoveries unearthed across our globe.

From the Dead Sea scrolls to the invention of Vaseline at an American oil rig, Atlas of the Unexpected uncovers treasures found over centuries, with detailed witty info accompanied by specially-drawn maps that show the geographical oddities of each one. Highly recommended, especially for the trivia enthusiast and the armchair traveller. 5/5

Pub Date 06 Sep 2018

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Aurum Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#AtlasOfTheUnexpected #NetGalley

This was not quite as good as Atlas Obscura, but it definitely had its moments. I'd love to have this one as a coffee table book.

Thank you to the publisher for granting my wish to read this book.

I am a world traveler obsessed with History, so this book appealed to me right off the bat. And I was not disappointed! Fascinating, educational, with great pictures as reference.

A great book for every bookshelf. I can't wait to plan my next trip.

Cheers,
Jess

A fascinating exploration of some of the oddest and most enchanting places on our planet. This book provides maps, photographs and an overview of each, the vast majority of which I’d never previously been aware of. There are weird living spaces, amazing architecture and much more.

My favourite ‘things’ here include: the stunning Fly Geyser in Nevada, Chess City in Kalmykia, Russia and Garbage City close to Cairo in Egypt. But there are loads of interesting places, facts and backgrounds to contemplate and digest. And some of the photographs are astonishing. I think this would make a brilliant coffee table browsing book and a great present for anyone interested in learning about some of the world’s great delights and surprises

This book is super cool, there are so many exotic and interesting and also scary place to visit in the world, and in this volume there are many depicted and explained, plus good stories are told about them. I would recommend this book to all the fans of Martin Mystere or Atlas Obscura.

Questo libro é bellissimo, ci sono ancora tantissimi strani ed interessanti posti da visitare nel mondo e molti sono spiegati e fotografati in questo volume assieme ad alcune storie che li riguardano. Consiglierei questo atlante a tutti gli amanti di Atlas Obscura ed i fan di Martin Mystere!

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

Some books, fiction or otherwise, take some time to reveal their glories. Not this one. Right from the start, when I fell in with the pattern of map, photo and two pages of very readable text for every entry, I realised this book was right up my street and doing just what it set out to do. So much so you can't mark it down, even if you could quibble about it being not full-colour, and even if you can sound churlish by pointing out a slight USA bias (a bloke knocking up a geyser by accident, and then some other bloke knocking it up again hardly counts for an earth-shattering discovery). Hidden cave cities, communities with bizarre origins, superlative dwellings, habitations and other locales all feature in this wonderful, wonderful compendium of the unlikely and the oh-so-intriguing. You wouldn't know it was a sequel, either, as it really does take you to unexpected places.

I enjoyed this book. The book details accidental discoveries and uniques places. Beautiful pictures accompany the stories and background of each building, place or land. I loved learning about the glass beach as well as places outside the United States.
I recommend this book to those with wanderlust to enjoy gorgeous pictures and cool facts!

This book was greatly interesting with all different kinds of things to learn about different places. I am not usually keen on this type of books but this one was very well made.

Fantastic coffee table book. As someone who reads a lot about unusual places around the world, I found that most of Atlas of the Unexpected included things which were completely new to me. A really great read to dip in and out of.

This book is one that really tickled my fancy, a combination of history, interesting facts, and maps...sign me up! Definitely a book I would like to read again in hard format rather than an ARC digital because it makes for an excellent coffee table style book, especially for people who love maps. I was very entertained to see a reference to the Georgia Colony in Savannah, as someone who grew up in Georgia and had to take several Georgia specific history classes, it gave me a chuckle. My only complaint about this book is its photography, I wish it was not black and white (strictly a stylized thing, I know) for older photos that is fine, but I feel there is a lot being missed out on by using black and white instead of color.

From the fortuitous discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, to the savvy invention of Vaseline at an American oil rig, Atlas of the Unexpected uncovers the most astounding and bizarre discoveries which have been unearthed on our planet.

Packed with incredible photos, maps and information, Atlas Of The Unexpected was everything I hoped it would be. Exploring unexpected things to have been discovered across the world, the books has such a great breadth of intriguing things. Items that I thought were fascinating included The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Buzludzha Monument and Jaisalmer Fort.

The way this is book is written is just as elegant. Poetic and really descriptive, it is a rich read packed with informative and quite interesting places that really grab your attention throughout the book. Drawing you in, Elborough really seems passionate about sharing these places and it makes for intriguing reading from start to finish, and in company with the maps and pictures, perfect.

Just such an impressive book, if you like strange things, you’re going to love this.

(I received an ARC from Netgalley/Publisher for a honest review).

In a compendium like the Atlas of the Unexpected, it is often helpful to see what the author is thinking. The following are excerpts from the introduction. “..odd and enchanting, ancient and modern…Unimaginable in some instances, and all but uninhabitable in others…remind us of the enduring strangeness of our planet.” These words pretty much sum up the scope of the book—a little about a lot! The chapter titles range from the Accidental Discoveries, Strange Roots, Haphazard Destinations, Cavernous Locations, and Serendipitous Spaces. Each of them seems to pull the reader in deeper. The sites described are from all over. Some, the intrepid traveler might have already visited like Pompeii in Italy or the Galapagos Islands. Others like the Lascaux Caves or the Dead Sea Scrolls sites might be places we want to go. Other sites, I’d never heard of but now would like to visit and some are easy to get to being in the United States like the Fly Geyser in Nevada or Glass Beach in California or Gibsonton in Florida where some of the human oddities lived.

Each place has its own story presented in a concise fashion taking only a few pages and often including a map showing exactly how to best find the site. In less than 200 pages, a staggering 45 places are described and shown. There is also a good bibliography for further study and reading. A comprehensive index of names and places allows finding any of the locations in the book easy.

If you were like me, one of the first things I did was turn to the map showing all of them to see how many were close by…there are nine in the United States!! Each site shares some interesting facts like the one on Grand Tsingy on Madagascar where the lemur abounds and it is their only known natural habitat. But not just the lemur is native, there are over 200,000 different species, making it the most biologically diverse island on Earth. Bet you didn’t know that before!!

This is one of those fun books to have and explore from time to time. It is probably not a book that one just picks up for a pleasure read. It is more of a reference work, useful in planning a trip to off-the-beat places or just doing research on oddities on our planet.

Atlas of the Unexpected is a compendium of places most unusual places on earth. Far from the 7 wonders of the world and the most visited places, this book focuses on the odd & unknown, mystifying yet equally enchanting places of the world.

This book has been divided in 5 sections: Accidental Discoveries, Strange Roots, Haphazard Destinations, Cavernous Locations and Serendipitous Spaces.

From the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls & an Underground city to the ‘Glass Beach’ in USA & A Chess City in Russia, this book has it all. From the man-made wonders of floating islands to natural wonders the author Travis Elborough takes you on a magical journey to some of the world’s most unimaginable and unknown places. With 45 unique places, Atlas of the Unexpected is one journey which you don’t want to miss.

Even as a fan of the Lonely Planet series, most of the places in the book were unknown to me. Clearly a lot of research has gone in the book. The decision to avoid some other fascinating but now well-known places like the 7 wonders or the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, makes the book truly unique.

Each of the 45 places come with a complete maps, photographs and complete background story of the place. Most of the photographs brilliantly capture the essence of the location. The maps were informative and the backstory provided is intriguing enough for you to search more about these places online. Overall, it is a highly entertaining & informative read that grabs your attention throughout the book. If you love travelling & exploring new places, you will love this book.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Aurum Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Atlas of the Unexpected by Travis Elborough is broken into several sections, helping to define the strange and unusual aspects of the sites mentioned. Each site is accompanied by black and white photos.

‘Accidental Discoveries’- includes places such as Cahokia and Pompeii. The latter, of course, is the famed city in Italy buried by the wrath of Mount Vesuvius. Cahokia I've had the honour of visiting, climbing to the top of Monk's Mound. It is an absolutely astounding North American archaeological site, and was once a thriving metropolis.

‘Strange Roots’- includes places such as Fort Town and Nowa Huta. Fort Town, in the UK, contains remnants of Leith Port's fort walls. Nowa Huta is a feat of engineering from the Soviet era. Designed as a town to support the steel processing plant being built nearby, it served as a home to revolutionaries in the 1980s.

'Haphazard Destinations’- includes such places as Caleta Tortel and the Korowai Treehouses. Caleta Tortel, in Chile, is a village situated in a cypress grove, and climbing up a mountain. The buildings are built on stilts, connected with a network of steep boardwalks. The Korowai Treehouses are located in the most remote region of Papua New Guinea. The region ranks among the wettest terrestrial landscape our world has to offer and the inhabitants of the region make their homes among the soaring tree tops.

'Cavernous Locations'- includes such places as Lascaux and Aogashima. The Lascaux caves in France hold some of the most treasured relics of prehistory. The walls are adorned with gorgeous ancient paintings of animals and people, depicting several species now extinct. Oh, how I'd love to see it in person! Sadly, the actual cave is closed to the public to preserve the works. Lascaux II and Lascaux IV present faithful recreations of the original and these are open to tourists. Aogashima, in Japan, is a tiny island with just 206 residents. It is very geothermally active and home to a series of steam baths. Excess steam is harnessed for the cooking of food.

‘Serendipitous Spaces'- includes such places as Glass Beach, California and Cat Island, Japan. At Fort Bragg, in California, the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed all but two of the town's houses. The rubble and debris were pushed into the ocean, allowing the town to rebuild itself. Other trash began to be dumped there until a new landfill was built. The actions of the waves, over the decades, has worn glass debris down to sparkling gems that mix with the beach pebbles in gorgeous display. Today there are restrictions against taking anything from the beach. Cat Island is a small Japanese island dominated by felines. There are far more cats than humans on the island. Initially brought over as mousers to protect silk farms, the cat population flourished. Today the island is a popular tourist attraction for cat-lovers.

I loved going through this book. There are so many neat places mentioned, and the archaeologist in me adored it. And while some sites mentioned were already familiar to me, such as Cahokia, Lascaux, and Cat Island, most were brand-new. It prompted me to look deeper into the places that really captured my attention. If you love travel, or enjoy learning about unusual places, this is the book for you!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A very, very, very interesting book. If you like learning about new places (undiscovered for a long time or recently discovered) this is a definite must-read. It's also great for writers and proves to be a really great tool for researching new and different places.

I really enjoyed this book. The pictures are great and some of the stories are great. The other info that includes the history is really well written..

I have always been the sort of person who keeps nuggets of random information with me to use as conversation fillers and maybe for people to think I am wacky enough to start an interesting conversation with.This has bits of random facts that would hook most people to its pages. There is not much of an order in which the information is revealed to us, but is segregated into broad topics based on the discovery itself(this was slightly ambiguous but the rest of the content made me forget that fact, the segregation seemed almost irrelevant).

There are a few stories mentioned here that I have come across in passing over the years but now had a chance to know a more detailed account. I am sure there were many more places that could have been featured in this, but the focus was on the most prominent of those across the world. There are very detailed maps, a sort of timeline and even the geographic coordinates for those thus inclined. It is another book that can grace your shelf for years to come and will continue to see daily use because it can not all be read in one go and needs to be savoured and discussed (preferably animatedly) in bits and pieces.
I bought a copy of the book because I was unable to complete the Advance review copy within the allotted time and the little I had read fascinated me enough to break out of my habit of not randomly purchasing books

I enjoyed this arm chair travel book. The author takes you on travels to unexpected places around the world. Included are lots of photographs, maps and a short description about why the place is unexpected. The book is full of interesting information. The writing is good and even humorous in places. This book would make a wonderful gift. Enjoy the travels