The Writer's Map

Maps! I am, and always have been, fascinated by maps. Especially literary maps. Who doesn't love a map included on the frontpiece of a book they're reading? I love this! The digital version was just enough to whet my appetite for a physical copy of this delightfully imaginative book - Thank You!

I have read a ton in my life but never a book like The Writer's Map, which is a wonder! So captivating to look at and read, this gorgeous book contains the world — literally — within its 167 full-color images. Included are medieval maps and others related to the classics, sci-fi and fantasy, adventure, collectible comics, and nursery rhymes. For readers who fancy maps, literature and high adventure. 5/5

Thanks to the author, the University of Chicago Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#TheWriter'sMap #NetGalley

Gorgeous collection and discussion about the beautiful maps, real, historic, imagined, created, etc as they have appeared in our favorite books over the years. Featured are the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, C.S. Lewis, Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, J.K. Rowling, L. Frank Baum, J.M. Barrie, and more!

This was a complete pleasure to read.

Literary maps are some of the most beautiful illustrations out there—a necessity for any legitimate fantasy novel. "The Writer's Map" is an atlas of maps from across different books, explaining the inspiration behind them and the process in which these maps are made. "The Writer's Map" is a stunning book, perfect for any lovers of maps and stories.

Love meandering down an unknown road? Love a good book whose setting is so very real in your head? Do you miss the days of sitting in the backseat of your parent's station wagon while on vacation and following the multi-day journey in the big car atlas? Do you use your phone's GPS app daily now? Is your house held together with bookshelves of your favorite reads and must reads? If any of those ring true, then The Writer's Map might be just for you.

This is NOT "just a book of maps" nor is it to be regarded as an atlas. Instead, The Writer's Map is a literary cartography book woven together with text to allow the reader to dig deeper into the imaginary lands of books they've read or have always wanted to read as well as thoughts and insights as to what maps of any kind offer a person.

I was delighted to come across Steven Spurrier's Swallows and Amazons map for the aptly named book by Arthur Ransome as we are currently listening to that audio book for in our homeschool. My favorite map offered in The Writer's Map is the full-color vintage map for Moby Dick. Created by Everty Henry, the map, as told in marginalia of the book, is said to have been created for a printing company to showcase "its high-quality inks", all in the throws of Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. That map alone is swoon-worthy. As a bibliophile I also really enjoyed seeing the pencil-sketched map in Jack Kerouc's working notes of On the Road. And the bit of trivia about the typing of the book, is quite a gem! It's little things like that that pop up throughout The Writer's Map which make this collection gift-worthy for all book lovers and a resource to refer to again and again.

Although I read this book via the free digital ARC provided to me, I will certainly be buying this as an actual paper-pages book! I highly recommend this book for your own self as well as your go-to for gift giving. It would be a boon to every librarian, English teacher, and bookhound. Map enthusiasts would certainly enjoy this for the originality and vast map collection contained within. This is a must-own for homeschoolers as no reading program, language arts program, English literature curriculum, or bookshelf should be without.

I have to say I have always had a fascination with maps. As a librarian I hate to say, but I have to say, that too often the maps in books are published in the endpapers and the book pockets and book covers libraries use are glued over the endpapers and the users are prevented from seeing the maps in their entirety. Oftentimes those maps are the most beautiful parts of the books and certainly may be an integral part of the story. As a reader I have often gnashed my teeth over this necessity, but I digress...

I love the concept of this book. I loved some of the maps it included and some of the stories behind the stories the maps were drawn for. Reading a digital copy isn't the best format for this book, so if you're interested, I would by all means recommend a paper copy.

I could of course think of many maps I would have liked to have seen included, but perhaps that just made the reading more fun! Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for this opportunity. #TheWriter'sMap #NetGalley

There's no better feeling than cracking open a brand new book and finding a gorgeous map on the endpapers. It's always such a nice surprise, so when I saw this book, I knew I had to request it,

I was not disappointed. In fact, The Writer's Map exceeded my expectations. There was such a wide variation of maps included, most in color, that it would be easy to sit with this book for hours and hours. Although I expected the book to be mostly maps, instead it was essays on these imaginary worlds and how they influenced other authors.


Some of my favorite maps included in this collection were (from) the Brontes, Treasure Island, Narnia.


I do wish that perhaps the book could have been more focused on the actual maps instead of so text heavy, but it's really just a minor quibble. This is definitely the type of book that works best in hard copy so you can really pore over each image.

Are you a true bibliophile? Do you enjoy entering both fictional and real worlds? Do you enjoy seeing the maps that writers create and love? If yes, this book is an amazing one and one that deserves a place on your bookshelf or coffee table. Readers can dip in and out and explore the many places within the book guided by well-known writers. I highly recommend this one. The illustrations are intricate and reproduced well. The text is interesting and offers lots of insight. One note: I read this as a digital ARC. I am eager to see the paper book so that I can browse back and forth more easily.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher.

I've been a map lover since childhood, greedily looking over the real-life maps in the World Book Encyclopedia and tracing the roads and features of story map in such books as FRIDAY'S TUNNEL and THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. As one of my "what do I want to be when I grow" musings I would have gladly tossed in "cartographer," as I created my own stories and drew my own maps, rejoicing in being able to name bodies of water, bays, shorelines and streets, coloring in mountains of brown and grey, and plains in green. Needless to say this book about the magic of maps both real and fictional was just my cup of tea. Each essay included in this book talks about the joy of reading maps or creating them, drawing the legends and, sometimes, with a chill of joy, being able to label an area of mysterious mountains, a place where dragons might still lurk.

The text is liberally illustrated with both ancient maps (some extremely rare) and maps of fictional worlds as far reaching as Lyra's Oxford from "His Dark Materials" and Westeros from GAME OF THRONES to dreamy locations like the Hundred Acre Wood of Winnie-the-Pooh and the golden world of the crews of the "Swallow" and the "Amazon." Those who dream of making maps and exploring unknown lands will love this book.

(This has nothing to do with the book's contents, but I need to mention to the publisher that I hope the official release electronic copies are better than the ones I had to read. It took me a long time to read this book because both the Kindle copy and the Adobe DRM version were so difficult to read. I could read the text easily in the Kindle copy, but the accompanying maps were all over the place and often a page away from their legend. The Adobe DRM version was even worse because it would not allow you to read one page at the time, but only a double-page spread was available to read. I had to read the book horizontally and could barely make out the text on my 10 inch tablet and couldn't read more than four or six pages at the time since it gave me such a headache. Nor could you zoom in on it. I hope the published e-book version is better.)

In the fall of 2010, I decided to start reading George RR Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series. I knew that HBO was going to make a show based on the books, and I thought it would be the perfect time to dive into the land of Westeros. My first move was buying A Game of Thrones. My second move was to buy a map of the famous island. I had heard many things about the books; besides adding twenty characters every hundred pages, Martin is apt to shift the setting pretty quickly, and I did not want to get lost.  I put the poster up next to my bed, with the condition that I'd only keep it up there until I finish the series. Yeah, we all know how that's going...

The Writer's Map is for people like me. People who include notes to publishers with their reviews asking, "Will there be a map in the final draft?" People who look at graph paper and see tombs and dungeons and locks needing a DC 15 dexterity check.  People who escape in the possibilities of other planets, plains, and plats. 

The Writer's Map is a thorough examination of literary cartography.  It is a collection of authors' and artists' writings about maps, and the maps that inspire them. The essays cover their personal connections to maps, the history of literary cartography and its continued inspiration of future writers and artists. From the Hundred Acre Woods to Middle Earth to the worlds that have been imagined so far beyond ours.

David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, sketches his settings while planning out his narratives.  Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train Your Dragon, spent many summers of her youth on a small island off the coast of Scotland developing her writing and honing her drawing talents. Other artists and writers were inspired by real maps and expeditions.  There's even a couple entries about designing the movie props for the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films. 

Editor Huw Lewis-Jones collects the personal connections, the nuts and bolts of mapmaking, and the history of. Also, a ton of great maps! If you’ve ever dogeared or bookmarked that page in the front, this is for you! It is an absolute joy to discover how storytelling and mapmaking connect and continue to inspire authors.

I am a big fan of the book of Imaginary Places and this is similar to that. I really enjoyed reading it along with the accompanying graphics I felt transported to new realms and Lands.

"The Writer's Map" invites us into the maps and worlds of some of our favorite books, stories, series. How many times have you read a book & mentally built your own map of the world that has unfurled before you in the pages? A visually stimulating book filled with maps of all shapes, sizes, colors and details and also the stories of creating the maps and the worlds - this book would find favor among those who love maps, travel, literature, imagination & more!

Free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is available on October 11th.

The Writer’s Map is a must read for those who love literary maps. In this stunning book filled with all kinds of literary maps, you dive deeper into the meaning behind them. Each chapter is written by authors and illustrators that bring their maps to life. This book has gorgeous visuals that bring out the inner child in eveyrone.

I was given this book by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

In the Venn diagram of common interests for map lovers and bibliophiles, you will find this volume. A gorgeous, imaginative book with essays and discussions of fictional lands, featuring new and old maps and hand-drawn illustrations, it engrossed me from the first page.

What a delightful book. Different authors talk about their love of maps and how they’ve used maps in their stories. It will make a great coffee table book as you enjoy looking at the pictures of maps featured on literature. Expect more than a coffee book, though. You’ll want to spend time reading the stories that will increase your love of maps. A great present for Christmas.

I always love it when books include a map, I like to see how the author imagined their story and follow along. This beautiful book is for people like me! It includes the great lands in literature like Narnia, Westeros, the Hundred Acre Wood, Mordor and Hogwarts, and each chapter includes a particular author and his/her land with stories, descriptions, influences and maps. It's a fantastic companion to great literature.

This would make a fantastic coffee table book that you can open up again and again and get lost in another world.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Chicago Press for an advanced copy of this book.

"I think I am quite ready for another adventure..." ~Lord of the Rings

Are you ready for a grand adventure? Then you need this book! From history to our favorite books, the maps are brought to life with stunning clarity. Not only are we getting fabulous photos, but the stories behind the maps! I have got to buy a copy of this, as the photos on the Kindle do not do the work justice. I was amazed at what I learned through this book! As an avid reader we build the ideas in our heads of what maps should look like, but to have them on paper, just brought home the fabulous works!

Get this on your MUST HAVE list! If you have a person in your love who loves maps than this is the perfect Christmas present!

Ever since I was a child and to this day, I have been always overjoyed upon seeing a map in a book. I thoroughly enjoyed going through the facts and rationale of the maps, both familiar and unfamiliar, included in this book. I'm impressed by the author's extensive research regarding the usage of maps in fiction and the coverage almost all prominent works of fiction that have included a map. This book is definitely going to make way to my coffee table! Thank you Net Galley and U. Chicago Press for providing the electronic ARC of this book!

Absolute pleasure and joy to read this book! I love maps, real and imaginary, and made many when I was growing up. I even created them for my daughter when she was small to enhance Santa letters from the North Pole! This book was a pure pleasure that I can't wait to purchase (I only have a Kindle and it does not do it justice.) I can't wait to get better looks at the maps! But the book it self a wonder! All about the various maps, the inspirations that inspired them, the authors that drew them, so much wonderful info even map lovers will enjoy them. Great book!

A fantastic collection of essays on mapmaking and fictional worlds - a definite must if you're an aspiring writer / worldbuilder, or just a map enthusiast.

What a fascinating book! A comprehensive look at literary maps, from how they're made to how they inspire the imagination. A very interesting read, with various authors writing about the books and maps that influenced their work, how making maps while they wrote helped shape their stories, how much a map can enhance a story, giving it more weight. Think about it- doesn't a good map in a book help you visualize the journey? Doesn't it make the story feel that much more real? This book is filled with beautiful illustrations, many are real world maps that provided inspiration for literary maps. Combined with the text, this makes a perfect book to get lost in!
I received an e-book copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review; honestly, I can hardly wait to get a physical copy of this book!

This was a meticulously researched book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It brought up every map of every fictional (and nonfictional!) world I could ever think of. Highly informational while still fun to read. If you have any interests in maps whatsoever I would recommend this book, or if you just want to learn a bit more about other worlds, just dive into this book. 4 out of 5 stars.

This book is so cool. If you've perused a fictional map in one of your favorite novels, this is something you need to check out. Lewis-Jones pulls together a collection of maps from some of the world's greatest stories and shares how they are created and why they help us get lost in these tales. From the most popular of maps like J.M. Barrie's Neverland and C.S. Lewis' Narnia, to various treasure islands and the routes of Viking excursions, he not only shows the published products but also introduces the sketches from his own journal. I particularly enjoyed his look at the middle earth maps from The Lord of the Rings. This is a book I will hang on to and treasure for a long time to come. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.