Which nations have North Korean embassies? Which region has the highest number of death metal bands per capita? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the 'wrong' side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild? Graphics can be powerful in getting across important information and I love how Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds relays information so effectively without being at all text-heavy. I wish this were a never-ending book. I'm sure other map-lovers would feel exactly the same. Data was unclear. It’s definitely more for entertainment than for information. One of the maps, for example, shows different statistics, each in a shade of pink. Okay, it’s a very pretty map, but I have no idea which of the 6 or so almost-identical shades I’m looking at for any given country. Cute, but not helpful. There were several like this, where the data was illegible. In the foreword, Wright explained that he defined "popular" as "the most talked-about maps, the ones that seemed especially to strike a nerve with readers." Some of these maps went viral. Unsurprisingly, maps having to do with politics and national identity were some of the most popular over the last five years. Grouped into broad categories (culture and customs, history, nature, etc.), these maps cover topics serious and less so . . . Whether browsing or looking for report inspiration, this visual, trivia-filled offering will get teens thinking outside the box.”— Booklist

There is a lot more that I could say here, but I don’t want to take away from the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.

We live on a strange and beautiful planet. It is full of history, geology, people place and countries and if you’re anything like me, I find facts and figures endlessly fascinating. The best way of quantifying this data is to put it in graphical form, and Ian Wright has done this in Brilliant Maps. With just an introduction followed by a collection of maps, this is less of a 'read' than a 'look', book. Divided into categories (People & Population, Religion and Politics, Culture, Geography, History etc), and then a colour coded map - usually of the world, and to illustrate a specific things - some general, some very specific.

This book will be published in November. It would be a fantastic gift book for the winter holidays. It would also make a great coffee table book, bet settler, and conversation starter. ("Hey, did y'all know California, all by itself, is one of the world's biggest economies?"). Having access to maps on the internet is nice. But as the little girl I used to be knew, sometimes it's nice to look at them in a book. It's an interesting book, showing a number of interesting and surprising map-based statistics like who drives on which side of the road or what countries lost the most people in each world war or how much sunlight does each country get? A lot of good stuff. A pity it wasn't presented a bit better. Data was misleading. For example, one of the maps showed only four countries that don’t use the metric system. The U.S. was one of them. Only, here’s the thing: I live in the U.S., and this country uses the metric system in official capacities all the time. It’s taught in public schools, even to the youngest grades, and it’s the standard for any American working in science, medicine, or the military. Even our currency is based on the metric system, which I don’t think the case in every nation. So I’m not clear whether the author’s information is wrong, or whether he meant that all the other countries on their map no longer use any non-metric system. And it’s one thing to use the metric system—which we absolutely do—it’s another thing to abandon a different system altogether. If there aren’t any remnants left of other measuring systems in the whole world except for 4 nations, well, that’s really very sad. Quirkiness. It has serious elements such as casualties from wars, but it also has some unabashedly bizarre entries, such as the one titled “Chile is a ridiculously long country.”Data was incomplete. Sometimes the maps just raised more questions about the research. One map, for example, compares homicide statistics among certain countries (randomly? I assume?). The data goes by number of deaths, but it doesn’t show the number as a percentage of the total population, so naturally, the more populous countries tend to have more deaths by any cause, because they have more people in the first place. This doesn’t help me understand anything about the countries’ safety or violence levels. Another map, comparing the U.S. and Europe, shows murder stats as percentages, which would have been more meaningful if two-thirds of it weren’t shades of blue. As before, I couldn’t tell them apart. He has separated the 100 maps in this books into eleven sections. The first three, People and Politics, Religion and Politics and power are very similar in scope. My favourite maps from these sections are Countries that have a smaller population than Tokyo and countries with large economies than California.

There were a few poor colour choices, where there wasn't enough contrast to easily recognise the difference, but for the most part these were well presented. There was enough good information interspersed with the quirky to keep me interested. Which nations have North Korean embassies? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the “wrong” side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild? Great information but I got more and more frustrated as I went along. Although there are few words other than the legend and title, I nearly marked this a could-not-finish—it was that aggravating. For graphic design enthusiasts, compulsive Wikipedia readers and those looking for the sort of gift they buy for someone else and wind up keeping for themselves, this book will change the way you see the world and your place in it. That’s right, Brilliant Maps is now a book. You’ll find the most popular maps I’ve published over the last few years along with many new ones; all completely re-imagined by Infographic.ly.I thought the comparison between travel time from London in the modern-day compared to 1914 where days have been replaced by hours was fascinating as well as the size and scope of the Roman and Mongol Empires when compared to modern countries such as China. It also shows in stark detail just what we have lost in our relentless expansion, especially with the map showing the current verses the old distribution of lions. Sadly, we do spend a lot of time arguing at personal and national levels. In Friends and Enemies, you can discover who the UK have not invaded, and who the Vikings invaded. Countries are not regular shapes, but the longest, Chile would reach from Spain to Norway and is just over 100 miles wide. There is a map showing just how many continents could fit inside the Pacific Ocean and how many roads actually lead to Rome. In Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds, you’ll learn all this and much more. One hundred visually arresting maps strike a balance between sobering analysis (number of executions by state) and whimsical insight (the countries of the world where there aren’t any McDonald’s). This simple book serves the schoolroom for all ages, the coffee table of any household, the shelf in any library, and a font of wonderfulness for any trivia gamer.” — New York Journal of Books

Our diversity across the planet has lead to a lot of different culture and customs, and know who drives on the wrong side of the road and writes the date wrong is useful if unimportant information.