Customer Reviews

Complete Idiot's Guide to Geography

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't think I have ever seen anything like this book. This book is excellent if you want to get an overview of every part of the world. The author begins by dispelling the myth that geography entails memorizing a lot of place names; perhaps a myth that I had formally believed. I was excited as every new chapter launched me into a different region of the world. The author gives facts about the physical features of the area, its people including: history, languages, numbers, religions, problems, and successes as well as lots of interesting tidbits on the side. Of course, keeping with the genre of all Idiot's books, he also keeps it light hearted and funny. He is forced to be very brief on his discussions, and I can imagine someone could get offended on how little he covers their particular place of interest. The only thing I can say is to keep in mind that he has to cover the whole world in just 363 pages. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to extent his or her minds beyond our own borders and explore the rest of the world.

The task of educating a reader on the subject of global geography in a one volume text is daunting to say the least. The author has concentrated his efforts in providing a synopsis of global geography. The book is divided into four parts. The first provides an overview of geography that introduces the terminology and basic maps reading skills. The second and third parts include a total of twenty chapters dedicated to describing and illustrating the geographical features of the earth. Only major geographic features are presented in these chapters. The reader should not expect descriptions of smaller features. For example the chapter discussing North America is accomplished in twelve pages. But at the end of those twelve pages the reader should have a mental sketch of the terrain including major rivers, mountain ranges, surrounding bodies of water, bordering countries and large lakes. Reciting and locating Canada's ten provinces and two territories will also be a much easier task. The final part of the book deals with population growth and environmental issues that effect our planet. Minimal information is provided on the cultural and social aspects of each geographic region. This exclusion has been noted as an oversight or deficiency by previous reviewer's. However if I may retort, the author has developed a reference book that strictly follows the definition of geography. Geography is defined as the study of the earth and it's features. Certainly these features affect how we interact with each other but any attempt to touch upon them is beyond the scope of this book. Readers should refer to geography books pertaining to the specific region of interest for detailed information regarding the relationships of those cultures. For those searching for detailed information on specific regions will also find this book inadequate and ultimately be disappointed. The books weakness is that the maps are black and white, very simplistic and unexciting. Overall the book provides an excellent geographical overview of the earth and is recommended for those readers who are looking to recapture what they have forgotten since high school geography.

I've had an enjoyable time using this guide and would definitely recommend it, but I would like to point out that you can't trust all the content of these "Idiot's" books. This geography guide states that the Lithuanian and Latvian languages are Slavic and similar to Russian and Polish. Any speaker of these languages will tell you Lithuanian and Latvian are Baltic languages, completely unlike the Slavic languages. Obviously, this is not the most important fact you'll ever need to know, but I question what other content is slightly incorrect.

I have taught high school geography for 10 years and this book covers the basic facts for all the countries, but I do not believe this is what geography is all about. The real "fun" in geography is applying the facts to the real world. Why does Pakistan and India not get along? Why might the U.S. be willing to go to war with China over Taiwan? What does Latin America and South Africa have in common? How has physical geography influenced how Europeans have related to western Africans? Facts are great but geography is about using the facts to answer the big questions. This book does not make the jump from facts to application.

I was extremely disappointed with this book. I was truly looking for a geography book for idiots. What I was hoping for was a book that I could go to a map of any country and see important cities, rivers, mountains and other pertinent facts. This is not that book. The Index is HORRIBLE! I do crossword puzzles and they often have clues for relatively unknown countries. You cannot find them is this book. The index does not list all of the countries, and if they are listed the maps are terrible. The maps are very small and use real fine print. I have 20/20 vision and absolutely cannot read the names of cities on these maps. I cannot say enough bad about this book. This IS NOT a book for geographical idiots.

I feel it is a great edition to everyones library because geoography in school is ususally fairly boring and coloring maps. Yet, in this ever changing world it is important to be in the know. Easy to follow, great facts, and works well in the developing of ones basic knowledge. The world is an amazing place, why not learn a little more.

The Idiots Guide to Geography was a wonderful refresher tool. It touches base on the Continents and all of the countries, surrounding bodies of water; as well as the cultures, climate and industry. I used an Atlas in conjunction to get a more indepth and closer look at each country. There was a quiz at the beginning of the book asking you to locate various places on the world map. I could only locate a few when I first opened the book. When I was finished I found all 10 with ease! This book was exactly what I was looking for. A refresher course for all that I forgot since High School!

In addition to several mistakes mentioned by other reviewers, I would like to draw attention to the nearly useless "Former Yugoslavia" section. While having a single section for the five new countries may have may arguably have *some* sense when the book was originally published in 1997, it certainly doesn't now. While some of the countries were heavily affected by ethnic strife -- as the author keeps pointing out -- Slovenia, bordering Italy, Croatia, Austria and Hungary, has been an economic success story and will be joining the EU on May 1st. Its experience over the past decade has been completely diferent than, say, Bosnia, but the reader of this book is never told that. The country doesn't even get its own listing, as the author was still stuck in the old "Former Yugoslavia" mindset when the book was written.

The idea behind the book is good, but if the volume simply reinforces some misconceptions and fails to provide any true insight in the subject matter, it doesn't accomplish its task, no matter how worthwile it may be. In other words, I doesn't deserve anything more than one star.

geography overview made interesting in this format presented

It is hard to believe that a geography book could be so much fun and so readable. The book takes the reader on a grand tour of the earth and its people bringing us both history and current events. Maps and sidebars do an excellent job of explaining the material. For the individual who feels like geography passed them by, this is the book!