Maphead ─ Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

Ken Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate” charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. Jennings also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.

From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.

Ken Jennings won seventy-four games and $2.52 million on Jeopardy!, both U.S. game show records. His book, Brainiac, about his bizarre Jeopardy! adventures and the phenomenon of trivia in American culture, was a national bestseller. He currently lives outside Seattle, with his family and a deeply unstable Labrador retriever named Banjo.