Sometimes the book's appeal goes beyond mapheads (the new term for map lovers). But too often Brook veers off into digressions about historical minutiae that could only be of interest to historical geographers.

But if the historical "discovery" of maps was a slow and gradual process, the way modern mapheads discover maps as children is more like the way cavemen must have discovered fire: as a flash of lightning. You see that first map, and your mind is rewired, probably forever.

Cartographers are looking for a few good hikers to update guidebooks and topos.

If you're a closet maphead longing for a chance to lay some contours of your own, there's a quad out there with your name on it.