Mapping the Modern World
I love when books come into the bookstore and just surprise me. I had seen maps from this collection in a Buzzfeed article, but had no idea that they were being compiled into a book. This review is short, solely because words really don’t do the book justice, it really deserves to be flipped through.
Synopsis
Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps is a wonderfully weird collection of meticulous and striking cartegraphic creations, such as the infamous Map of Stereotypes. Based on a westerner’s stereotypical view of the world, Slovakian artist and cartophile Martin Vargic assigns more than two thousand labels and prejudices to cities, states, countries, continents, oceans and seas on a large-scale, visually stunning world map, which alone took more than four months to create. The conceptual Map of the Internet and the Map of Sports are exquisite and surprising, and infographic maps showing the number of heavy-metal bands per capita, the probability of getting struck by lightning, average penis length, and the number of tractors per 1,000 inhabitants make it hard not to share with the person next to you.
Review
Curious Maps is my new (and probably only) favorite coffee table book that I am excited show to everyone who walks through my door. As a collector of geographic oddities and atlases, I was immediately drawn to Vargic’s unique and intricately drawn maps of literature, sports and pop culture. The maps are beautiful, frame-worthy works of art that I would love to hang in a proper library of my own one day. It is worth paging through and I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful it is!
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
Celebration of Books 