The Power of Maps

Rating:
Summary: Poor writing, shallow thinking
Review: For those who simply like maps, here is a quick response to "The Power of Maps": DO NOT bother reading this book! The writing is poor. The book is riddled with errors (the chapter on Tom Van Sant's beautiful, global satellite image map is particularly bad in this regard). Very few actual maps are included, and they are reprinted in an ugly, unreadable small black & white format. Worst of all, the author doesn't really have anything to say about the power OR beauty of maps, or about what makes a map elegant, eloquent, or useful.

Like so many ivory-tower deconstructionists, Wood's primary focus seems to be on the manipulation of language as a weapon against his own subject - in this case, cartography. As one who loves maps, and works with them professionally, I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to write about them in such an insipid, uninteresting, and unenlightening way. Don't waste your time or your money on this book!

Rating:
Summary: ... the heights!
Review: If you want the history of cartography or an explanation of its technicalities, this is not the book for you. If you want to see more clearly the human landscape in which maps are embedded and the human activities for which maps are constructed, this IS the book for you! Brilliant and fun and informative reading for cartographers and laymen. Denis Wood shows how maps represent societies as much as topographies. Grab your topo for rafting trip through time and place!

Rating:
Summary: Dot Dot Dot
Review: In addition to the other points raised by the reviewers, I'd like to add that the editor should be taken out and ... forced to say 'dot dot dot' every time there's an ellipsis.

The ellipsis is used inappropriately too. It's used as a long pause as if the professor is leading the class in discussion and saying 'anyone? anyone? Bueller?' at the end of the paragraph.

Given the frequency with which these ellipses show up (there are as many as four per page and there's usually one on every page) it's enough to drive the reader to ... distraction.