Review by Choice Review
In this highly engaging text, science writer Bond invites readers to learn more about two aspects of their own experience they might routinely take for granted: spatial cognition and navigation skills. In 10 brief chapters, Bond makes a compelling case for why the reader should become more interested not only in avoiding becoming lost, but also in enjoying the experience of getting lost! The scope of discussion ranges from evolution to neurons, from human migration history to current technology, from child development to aging, from desperate search and rescue missions to current groundbreaking cognitive science research. Each chapter begins with an interesting narrative, drawn from personal experience or current events, through which Bond draws attention to a particular question about spatial understanding, effectively serving to interest and educate. Of particular interest are the connections drawn between current technology and mental health issues. For readers desiring original sources there are copious endnotes. Novices will gain a new appreciation for how humans move themselves around their familiar and unfamiliar worlds, and a graphic awareness of how much we do not yet know about these amazing abilities. More knowledgeable readers and instructors may find themselves inspired by the clarity of Bond's explanations to include this text in a special topics course. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and researchers. General readers. --Julia F. Heberle, Albright College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Science writer Bond (The Power of Others) covers the subject of navigation in this fascinating study. Among other topics, he explains why people don't get lost more often, how brains makes "cognitive maps," and how an "understanding of the world around us affects our psychology and behavior." The ability to navigate was essential to the survival of early humans, Bond notes: it allowed Homo sapiens to "cultivate extensive social networks" by traveling to other small groups. Bond offers lessons in brain physiology, explanations of how memories aid navigation, and an examination of the evidence that there's a difference between men's and women's navigational skills. But it's Bond's real-life examples--reindeer herders in northwestern Siberia and the unsettling story of a skilled hiker lost on the Appalachian Trail, among others--that most illuminate his points. Readers will also encounter a grim look at what dementia and Alzheimer's patients experience ("how distressing it must be to wake and recognize nothing") and learn that scientists are still undecided if overreliance on GPS is related to cognitive decline. Adventure-loving readers will be richly rewarded. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A scientifically rich look at how humans manage to get around in the world.The ability of the human species to construct and file away mental maps of the world, writes former New Scientist senior editor Bond, allowed our highly social kind to find its way out of Africa, spread all over the world, and establish and maintain contacts and trade with faraway populations in a comparatively short amount of time. Those whose business it is to know many ways of getting aroundtaxi drivers, say, famously those negotiating the fabulously illogical plan of Londonhave more "gray matter" and better developed hypothalamuses than those who stay at home. On that note, adds the author, we are creating whole generations of geographically stunted children by not giving them room to roam and opportunities to get lost. "Free play," he writes, "makes us less likely to suffer from spatial anxiety and more proficient in wayfinding," and one of the crueler aspects of dementia disorders such as Alzheimer's disease is their way of robbing victims of their sense of where they are in the world. Bond consults psychologists, neuroscientists, geographers, and other specialists in building his narrative of our kind's devotion to "learning about the space around us and how we fit into it." M.R. O'Connor's standout 2019 book Wayfinding covers much of the same ground, but Bond offers a solid contribution that complements rather than competes with its predecessor. Of particular interest is Bond's look at gender differentiation in how people perceive the world. Men, he writes, are likelier to use cardinal directions and distances in describing a route; conversely, "ask a woman and you're more likely to get a rich description of the things you'll pass along the way."Just the book for students of the human mind as well as geography and travel buffs. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
