If you’re the kind of person who gets excited by old atlases, zooms in a little too far on Google Earth, or can happily lose an hour staring at a well-drawn transit map, then This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (and Why It Matters) is a book you absolutely shouldn’t miss.
Drawing on numerous online reviews and reader reactions, here’s why this book has quickly become a favourite among geography geeks and casual readers alike.
🌍 A Celebration of Cartographic Chaos
One of the biggest delights of the book is its collection of nineteen real-world map blunders. These range from the mildly amusing to the utterly baffling—missing countries, misplaced mountains, incorrect borders, and even modern digital map fails that made it past multiple layers of review.
Reviewers consistently highlight how surprising it is that many of these mistakes are not ancient at all, proving that cartography is still very much a human art—fallible, funny, and frequently chaotic.
😂 Smart, Witty, and Genuinely Funny
Multiple readers describe the book as laugh-out-loud funny. Cooper-Jones and Foreman bring a lively, almost conversational tone to every chapter, turning what could have been a dry educational read into something effortlessly engaging.
As one reviewer summarised:
“I’m a bit of a map nerd… they do a fantastic job of keeping you entertained, and you learn something too.”
It’s this balance—humour with substance—that gives the book such wide appeal.
🧭 Insightful Explanations Behind the Mistakes
Beyond the comedy, the book explores why these errors happened. Reviews praise the authors for weaving together:
- History
- Politics
- Human error
- Geography
- Broadcasting quirks
- Corporate decision-making
- Technological limitations
You don’t just look at a wrong map—you understand the forces that made it wrong, and what that means for how we see the world.
📖 Perfect for Map Nerds and Casual Readers Alike
Several readers compare the reading experience to watching a great YouTube video: fast-paced, engaging, visual, and highly bingeable. You don’t need prior knowledge of cartography to enjoy it; the book’s charm lies in its accessibility.
Whether you’re a long-time atlas enthusiast or someone who only glances at maps when travelling, the storytelling draws you in.
🗺️ A New Way to See the World
Perhaps the biggest takeaway reviewers mentioned is how the book changes your relationship with maps. You come away realising that maps are not objective truths carved into the world—they are interpretations, guesses, and decisions. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes flawed, always fascinating.
As one reviewer joked after finishing the book, “I will never look at a map the same way again.”
✨ Final Thoughts
This Way Up is a joyful, clever, and eye-opening journey into the art of mapping gone wrong. It celebrates the beauty and the imperfections of the tools we use to navigate our world. If you love maps—really love them—this is one of those books that feels written just for you.
It will make you laugh.
It will make you think.
And it might even make you double-check your next atlas.