{"product_id":"map-addict-a-tale-of-obsession-fudge-the-ordnance-survey-9780007300846","title":"Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge \u0026 the Ordnance Survey","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMap Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge \u0026amp; the Ordnance Survey\u003c\/strong\u003e by Mike Parker. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780007300846.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy name is Mike and I am a map addict. There, its said! Maps not only show the world, they help it turn. On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: checking the A-Z, the road atlas or the Sat Nav, scanning the tube or bus map, a quick Google online or hours wasted flying over a virtual Earth, navigating a way around a shopping centre, watching the weather forecast, planning a walk or a trip, catching up on the news, booking a holiday or hotel. Maps pepper logos, advertisements, illustrations, books, web pages and newspaper and magazine articles: they are a cipher for every area of human existence. At a stroke, they convey precise information about topography, layout, history, politics and power. They are the unsung heroes of life: Map Addict sings their song. There are some fine, dry tomes out there about the history and development of cartography: this is not one of them. Map Addict mixes wry observation with hard fact and considerable research, unearthing the offbeat, the unusual and the downright pedantic in a celebration of all things maps.In Map Addict, we learn the location of what has officially been named by the OS as the most boring square kilometre in the land; we visit the town fractured into dozens of little parcels of land split between two different countries and trek around many other weird borders of Britain and Europe; we test the theories that the new city of Milton Keynes was built to a pagan alignment and that women cant read maps. Combining history, travel, politics, memoir and oblique observation in a highly readable, and often very funny, style, Mike Parker confesses how his own impressive map collection was founded on a virulent teenage shoplifting habit, ponders how a good leftie can be so gung-ho about British cartographic imperialism and wages a one-man war against the moronic blandishments of the Sat Nav age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Collins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44947509182517,"sku":"ByrdShop_0007300840","price":60.31,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780007300846_438d2b19-4abd-49cf-8010-e8a7791ea753.jpg?v=1778860400","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/map-addict-a-tale-of-obsession-fudge-the-ordnance-survey-9780007300846","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}