Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place-Names

Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing book
Review: "Off the Map" is a slim, spotty and poorly edited little book, given to factual mistakes, irritating grammatical errors and not a whole lot of substance. This is the sort of book that makes me think the author wrote it hurriedly (and negligently), just to make a few bucks. Unfortunately, he got a few of my bucks, each of which I consider misspent.

Rating:
Summary: The first line is well said, but it's downhill from there.
Review: After reading only the first 35 pages, I had come across literally dozens of inaccuracies in Mr. Nelson's book. Easily over half the facts lack context, are misinterpreted, or just plain wrong. Examples: 1) Saying that Gaza is "now held by Egypt" [It's now under control of the Palestinian authority and ultimately still under Israeli control.] 2) "Before World War II, Silesia and Pomerania were located southwest of Poland, between Germany and Czechoslovakia" [Pomerania was NORTHwest of Poland, and Poland directly bordered Germany - no Czechoslovakia in between] With the amazing number of errors in this book, I would recommend it for only one reason: It would make an excellent history/geography project to have students go through and correct all the errors.

Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect, Not Definitive, But Fun
Review: Derek Nelson's book Off the Map is the historical equivalent of a bathroom book. This is not said to be derogatory. In many ways, that is the charm of the book. It is light, easy to read, and filled with many, many facts. There are too many facts coming at the reader to remember them all or to learn them. Instead, the reader will come away with the general knowledge of how important place-names are to a culture and how other cultures will view a place and give it a name of their own. Naming a place to some extent is a control issue and the struggle for control is an ever-changing idea. But even these ideas are too heavy to be sustained in this light book. This book is meant to read quickly and enjoyed throughout. It is cotton candy, sweet to taste but light on substance with a carnival happening just on the outskirts of the reader's eye.

Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect, Not Definitive, But Fun
Review: Derek Nelson's book Off the Map is the historical equivalent of a bathroom book. This is not said to be derogatory. In many ways, that is the charm of the book. It is light, easy to read, and filled with many, many facts. There are too many facts coming at the reader to remember them all or to learn them. Instead, the reader will come away with the general knowledge of how important place-names are to a culture and how other cultures will view a place and give it a name of their own. Naming a place to some extent is a control issue and the struggle for control is an ever-changing idea. But even these ideas are too heavy to be sustained in this light book. This book is meant to read quickly and enjoyed throughout. It is cotton candy, sweet to taste but light on substance with a carnival happening just on the outskirts of the reader's eye.

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous study of geography and the humanity of it
Review: I found "Off the Map" to be a breath of fresh air in a discipline that has fallen from grace of late. Mr. Nelson's true love for history and the human frailty behind it is evident throughout the work. I highly recommend this book for the casual reader as well as the academic. A delight!

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous study of geography and the humanity of it
Review: I found "Off the Map" to be a breath of fresh air in a discipline that has fallen from grace of late. Mr. Nelson's true love for history and the human frailty behind it is evident throughout the work. I highly recommend this book for the casual reader as well as the academic. A delight!

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous study of geography and the humanity of it
Review: I found "Off the Map" to be a breath of fresh air in a discipline that has fallen from grace of late. Mr. Nelson's true love for history and the human frailty behind it is evident throughout the work. I highly recommend this book for the casual reader as well as the academic. A delight!

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly informative
Review: I thought the book fascinating and informative. I was particularly impressed with the enlightening attention to detail. I confess I took notes while reading it to help absorb the respectable amount of information it contained.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful resource
Review: I took a wonderful journey across the modern spectrum of geography with the author's work. I'm sorry a previous reader couldn't enjoy the same trip. This book takes geography out of the realm of academia and puts into the grasp of more readers. Having received an advanced degree in a related area, I know how what may have started as a small idea surely became an all-encompassing labor of love for the author. I appreciated his research and personally thought the editing kept the book on target. Give this one a read if you have the slightest bit of curiosity about how geography just isn't about states and cities, it ties the world together. Imagine my surprise when I found the book I had picked up on a whim was written by a Tidewater neighbor.

Rating:
Summary: Fun but disappointing
Review: I wondered when I read this book just how accurate it was. It is a huge area of information to cover and the author while writing well does seem to have made some annoying errors. The other reviews cover many of them it seems (a lot I didn't know in fact) The one I picked up is that, when naming the Apollo 13 captain, Nelson called him James Loving (his name is, in fact, James Lovell). Its kind of really basic mistakes like that which bother me. It shouldn't be that hard to get an editor who can pick up on the slip-ups an author makes.

Although Nelson has divided his book up into 11 chapters they do tend to overlap a lot in subject area and matter. It is a fun easy read, one of those books with lots of little snippets of information which makes it easy to pick up at virtually any stage. However in the end I think a book needs to be both fun and accurate.