I didn’t plan for Reading Independent Publishers Month, but it seems I have at least one book that fits the challenge, this one!
Update: It turns out that Particular Books is an imprint of Penguin/Random House, so this book doesn’t qualify for #ReadIndies after all!
I have to say that it’s seldom I get so much enjoyment from a nonfiction book. I found this one original and really interesting.
Born in East Germany, Judith Schalansky explains that she got interested in maps because she thought she would never be able to travel. For our enjoyment, she has put together this atlas of some of the most remote islands in the world.
Starting with end papers showing the world map and each island’s location, she arranges the sections by ocean. For each island, the first two pages show its data—name, ownership, size, and number of residents. Then its distance is shown from three other locations to give a sense of how isolated it is. Then there is a timeline of a few events related to the island. On the opposite page is a topographical map.
On the next two pages is a story about the island. This may be anything from a description of how desolate it is to a description of a native custom, an ecological disaster, or some other event.
The edition is lovely, with its orange cover, its edges turquoise, the color used on the maps for water.
It’s not often that I find a book interesting enough to read passages out loud to my husband, but the poor guy had to listen to several from this book.
What? Me Read? 
I love a good map, so this sounds wonderful!
I enjoyed it a lot.
I absolutely love this book and have read it several times since buying it about 15 years ago. I have a particular attraction to islands (maybe the result of living on a very big one – Australia – and having ancestors originating from a smaller one – Britain!) and when I travel overseas always visit at least one. I’ve been to islands off Iceland, Britain, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia; made multiple trips to the Channel Isles and Faroe Islands, BUT I still haven’t made it to any of the 50 islands in this book. Oh well, I think I will just have to be content to enjoy them vicariously through this wonderful book …
What is this thing about islands? I have it, too. I went two years ago on a cruise with a friend, my only condition was that it had to include at least one stop on an island. We picked one of Great Britain, with a stop in the Orkneys. Well, by the time we were going on that cruise, the stop in the Orkneys had been dropped from the route! I was so disappointed!
Oh, what a let down!! (The Orkneys are wonderful, and definitely well worth visiting.)
What I love about islands is that they’re so self-contained, like visiting anither world; that even though they are affected by the mainland they are part of/ close to, they are distinct and have their own culture, quirks, words that are specific to them, history etc. And generally, they are not quick and easy to get to, are often off the beaten track, and that extra effort that is needed adds to the appeal, the satisfaction and enjoyment that is gained just by being there. I don’t know if that all makes sense – in many ways it is hard to put into words, but it’s something you can feel, can sense.
I haven’t been on many, but I’ve always had a thing about them and wanted to visit more.
This does sound brilliant, your lucky husband!
I don’t know if he felt that way! I guess he didn’t mind, though.
Particular Books may not be indie, but they do produce some nicely quirky non-fiction sometimes, I read one of theirs about rock lighthouses a few years ago, and found it as fascinating as you found this.
Oh, that sounds interesting.