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Maphead
- Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere. Jennings takes listeners 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. He 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.
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Ken’s podcast Omnibus is much better
- By Tom Craven on 07-11-23
By: Ken Jennings
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Planet Funny
- By: Ken Jennings
- Narrated by: Ken Jennings
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means - or doesn’t - to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected president of the United States purely on showmanship.
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A disappointing effort from a sharp wit
- By Tom Craven on 06-06-18
By: Ken Jennings
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Greek Mythology
- Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides
- By: Ken Jennings
- Narrated by: Ken Jennings
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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With this Junior Genius Guide to Greek mythology, you’ll become an expert and wow your friends and teachers with all the best ancient stories: how Prometheus outsmarted the gods, how Achilles’s heel led to his death, and how we mere mortals always seem to get mixed up in so many misadventures. With cool trivia and fun quizzes to test your knowledge, this guide will have you on your way to whiz-kid status in no time!
By: Ken Jennings
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Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
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What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
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Unruly Places
- Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies
- By: Alastair Bonnett
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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At a time when Google Maps can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemite's remotest trails and cell phones double as navigational systems, it's hard to imagine there's any uncharted ground left on the planet. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination. Bonnett's remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no man's lands, and floating islands.
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Fascinating look at places you never thought of
- By Jody R. Nathan on 05-21-15
By: Alastair Bonnett
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The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
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It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
What listeners say about Maphead
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angel D.
- 01-17-12
Fun
As a geek and map lover- this was a fun book to read over break. I learned a few new things, but just as importantly got to have the moments of " it is not just me". I recommend this to anyone who likes maps or watches the weather channel for fun.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-15-11
Interesting, engaging, and laugh out loud funny
Even as someone who isn't that into geography, this was something that kept my attention all the way through. Funny anecdotes, interesting ideas and good pacing.
Also, I want to highlight Mr. Heyborne's narration - it really added to the experience. I usually prefer when a book is read by the author, but I can't imagine anyone doing a better job adding life to the text.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Lynn
- 01-27-12
A Romp through Maps
I approached Ken Jennings’ new book, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, without expectations. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. In autobiographical chapters he tells of his early interest in maps and considers the type of people who are drawn to maps (pardon the pun). Jennings spends some time telling the reader about the rarified world of map collectors and of the national geography competition entertained by high school students across the country. The more interesting sections to me were related to the development of Google Maps and their impact on map making and our conceptualization of the world. He describes Google Maps as a one-to-one representation of the globe and wonders if Google Maps will bring the end to map making as we have known it. Essentially, I found Maphead to be an engaging, entertaining, interesting, and informative romp through everything map related. Kirby Heybone does a grand job of reading the text.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Greg & Brandi
- 11-14-20
Fun And Interesting
I thoroughly enjoyed the book with all the interesting facts and the nice way they are all tied together. I couldn’t help thinking that Ken Jennings might be the next Bill Bryson. An author who can take a subject and tell a story that flows like a rapid river. It grabs you pulling you along through the twists and turns. Down slopes and over rocks through canyons on a playful adventure.
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- History Buff
- 09-29-22
More to maps than just directions!
More than I ever realized there was to maps and those who understand them! Plus other interesting tidbits. Glad I listened to it: not sure I would have finished reading it had I not. Not that Heyborne did a poor job, but I wish Jennings had narrated his own work.
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- David
- 10-25-11
Mapheads Unite
If you like maps, geocaching, National Geographic GeoBee, history, etc then you will enjoy this book. It covers a variety of topics in depth while pacing itself well. The author includes personal stories, love of topic, and experiences researching for the book.
Narrator did well and I enjoyed the book.
I ask that Audible start including pdf's of the pictures included within printed version of books. This would have increased the enjoyment of this book given the topic. I think this is a good book for audible with pictures of the maps really adding to it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Pete
- 07-25-12
I'm a Maphead!
Where does Maphead rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is an interesting and unusual book, but not a life-changing one for me.
What did you like best about this story?
I love maps, and want to know more about geography and history; but I am not really interested in all the numerous clubs and peoples who set, in some cases, very unusual goals in their geographical pursuits.
Which character – as performed by Kirby Heyborne – was your favorite?
The author himself is the most interesting of the characters of the book.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Mapheads Gone Wild!
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1 person found this helpful
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- E. J. Potchen
- 02-26-15
Why aren't there more map nerds?
Dyspacia is akin to dyslexia. Some people have more difficulty handling space than they do words. This book points out that enjoyment that can be derived from being a map nerd.
Knowledge of space and geography is an essential component of the human intellect.
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- Ellen A. Hernandez
- 04-01-17
Interesting and engaging
As a map head myself, I loved it, but the mispronunciations by the reader were distracting (Samuel Pepys, the Thames River, trompe l'oeuil, and more)
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- Alex
- 12-18-20
Not a Maphead, loved it!
I’m not a huge geo buff or Maphead by any means, but after finishing Planet Funny I really wanted to check out another K.Jennings book. I was actively entertained by Jennings witty sarcastic writing pros and learned so much about geo history in the process. Looking forward to diving blindly into anything this guy writes!
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