🎁 Gifts For Map Nerds! 🎁
A lot of people have asked what’s a good gift to get a geography fan. So here’s my favs. If you like Map Nerd content, you’ll like these geography books, maps, toys, and more!…
📚Click Here to skip to (Smaller) Books For Readers (yes, they still have maps!)
🪀Toys, games, globes, & more coming soon!
👂If you have a suggestion to add, let me know here! All thoughts are welcome (I just won’t add the bad ones 🤣)
Great Map & Geography Table Books
(All of the below are my independent recommendations. When you purchase through a link, I may receive an affiliate commission which helps support the continuation of Map Nerd. Thank you!)
(📚Skip down below if you’re looking for smaller “Books For The Couch”📚)
Here are great coffee table & display books on geography, maps, and world exploration:
National Geographic Atlas of the World (or its little sibling: National Geographic Concise Atlas of the World)
The Rainbow Atlas: Guide to the World’s 500 Most Colorful Places
Lonely Planet’s The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World
National Geographic Atlas of Wild America (pre-order / ships Oct 3, 2023)
(whoops… I guess I missed a #5. I like maps, not numbers 🤷♂️)
Mark Ovenden’s graphic map books: Airline Maps: A Century of Art and Design & Transit Maps of the World & Underground Cities (*packed with lots of wonderful map visuals)
Ian Wright’s Brilliant Maps For Curious Minds series (*maps that’ll get you thinking)
Kate Ascher’s illustrated explainer books: The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper & The Works: Anatomy of a City (*if you like illustrated breakdowns of how things work, these are fabulous)
CineMaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies (*for movie fans)
Map: Exploring The World (*for art & design lovers)
History of the World: Map By Map (*for history buffs)
The Man Behind The Maps: Legendary Ski Artist James Niehues (*if you ski, you will immediately understand who this guy is)
Atlas of Design: Volume Six (*Published annually by the North American Cartographic Information Society, these are the year’s best maps as voted by mapmakers themselves!)
Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities (*Frank Jacobs is like the OG Map Nerd, he wrote the first blog dedicated to weird map things)
Geography Books For The Couch
(All of the below are my independent recommendations. When you purchase through a link, I may receive an affiliate commission which helps support the continuation of Map Nerd. Thank you!)
Here are some smaller paperbacks for people who enjoy reading about fascinating places and geography facts (on the couch, at bed, or in the bathroom - I don’t discriminate 😉):
99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design (*book version of the hit podcast that explores what goes on under the surface of everyday life: how the hidden stuff of everything works)
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World by Tim Marshall (*a well-written succinct rundown of how geography has shaped the world’s current affairs)
Underground Cities: Mapping the Tunnels, Transits and Networks Underneath Our Feet by Mark Ovenden
City on a Grid: How New York Became New York by Gerard Koeppel (*for fans of New York, history, and urban planning)
An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders (*the flagship compendium from the popular brand for armchair explorers)
1,000 Places To See Before You Die by Patricia Shultz
Atlas of Invisible: Maps & Graphics That Will Change How You See The World by James Cheshire & Oliver Uberti
Atlas of Untamed Places by Chris Fitch
Atlas of Forgotten Places by Travis Elborough
(see #11)
(see #11)
The Age of Islands: In Search of New & Disappearing Islands by Alastair Bonnet
Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel Quiz Book 2 & 1 (*if there’s a go-to for map nerds in the bathroom, this may be it!)
The Quarantine Atlas: Mapping Global Life Under COVID-19 by Laura Bliss (*pretty and insightful: hand-drawn maps and diagrams of how we behaved during covid)
The State of The World Atlas by Dan Smith (*an amazing "visual survey of global trends” - will challenge & visually delight map lovers)
