Simon Garfield's acclaimed books of nonfiction include last year's Just My Type: A Book about Fonts.His new book, On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, is available now in the UK and hits the US in December 2012.
One of Garfield's top ten books with maps, as told to the Guardian:
The Rings of Saturn by WG SebaldRead about the other entries on the list.
Disturbing and truly memorable, Sebald's ramble through the Suffolk ghostlands shows us how much we normally miss. The author weaves history, memory and erudite imaginings as he strolls, with a visit to McDonalds an eerie break in an otherworldly journey. In so doing he worms a map in your psyche, and I felt I was trespassing on secret and pagan land. It's not the cheeriest of reads or landscapes, but it's an utterly compelling one.
The Rings of Saturn is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best long walks in literature.
The Page 99 Test: Simon Garfield's Just My Type.
--Marshal Zeringue