In high school or college, at some point a dictionary was a required reading companion for most of us. I still keep a dictionary / thesaurus on my reading shelf and try to make use of it when I need to look up the meaning of a word.
As I was reading Catherine the Great a few months ago, I realized how helpful it would be to have an atlas. My husband must have caught the hint as I repeatedly mentioned this statement and he presented me with the National Geographic Collegiate World Atlas for my birthday. It is fantastic! Besides the detailed geographical maps, there are additional maps with economic layers, etc. Here are a couple of pictures from my newest reference:
So far I've used it while finishing up Catherine the Great to follow her conquests into Turkey, Poland and some of the other Baltic areas. It also came in handy while reading Thunderstruck to see where the trials took place for setting up wireless communication in the early 1900s in England, Canada and New England.
At some point, I should have a review of Maphead by Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy whiz from a few years book. Apparently we share a similar fascination of maps, and I'm on the wait list at the library... to be continued!
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