There's nothing better than a New Year's Day walk to blow off the cobwebs post Christmas and that's what inspired my choice of this week's Ladybird Tuesday: Learnabout… Maps.
The Learnabout series (series number 634 if you're wondering) included books on both indoor and outdoor activities ranging from Stamp Collecting to Coarse Fishing and Training Your Dog. I'm a complete map addict and hence the book on maps has to be my favourite from the Learnabout series. First published in 1967 I'm guessing that the copy I have has to be a later reprint – mainly due to the 1974 Crown Copyright legend inside the front cover.
This book covers pretty much everything I learnt about maps from secondary school geography classes as well as all the Duke of Edinburgh's Award map reading sessions I attended over the years. There's an obvious emphasis on Ordnance Survey maps and how to read and use them, as well as descriptions of all the various features you can find on them.
The book doesn't just stop at reading maps though as there is a detailed guide as to how to create your own map based on what you can see around you – something that I remember being taught to do in the Girl Guides.
Use of maps is not just limited to finding your way around. If you look at any decent world atlas there are normally pages of geology, population, rainfall and land use maps and this Ladybird book contains a useful guide to understanding how these can help you understand a country better in terms of the land itself and the people who live and work there.
Revisiting this Learnabout book in order to write this blog post has reawakened some of my fascination with maps. All the map basics you could possibly need are covered here and I'm thinking that I ought to re-read it properly before starting on the book Mr C bought me for Christmas: On The Map: Why the world looks the way it does
I'm Mrs C and I'm a Map Addict!
If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!
As I tweeted this morning, I too have the “On The Map” book but am yet to start it.
If you’ve got the other one – Map Addict – can I borrow at some point once you’ve read? Will gladly swap for a couple of books of Metro and Rail maps if that’d tickle your fancy…
Sadly I dont have Map Addict 🙁 metro rail maps would be of interest though – have a couple of good UK Rail Atlases *geek alert*
A Ladybird Tuesday post on New Years Day, you are so professional Mrs C (or maybe it is your map addiction). I have only just returned to blogging from my Christmas hiatus, with a post on Starting School from the Ladybird’s Talkabout series.
http://mrsfoxs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ladybird-tuesday-starting-school.html
Ah, but last week I had time (and a husband to help with the little ones!) still writing this weeks post though!