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[natcase]

I'm surprised no-one has posted here about The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, the best-selling debut novel by Reif Larsen. It's a profusely illustrated story about a 12-year-old cartographic prodigy and his journey from Montana to Washington DC. It's an interesting book on its own, and has a number of little "easter eggs" for cartographic insiders:

1. The narrator is NACIS's first fictional member (see p. 358).
2. Corlis Benefideo, eponymous central character of Barry Lopez's short story "The Mappist," makes a cameo appearance (see earlier CartoTalk discussion of Lopez's story)
3. The maps themselves, really lovely pieces of work as much about mapping as about their explicit subjects.

In the end, it's a very peculiar book. I have more to say about it on my blog, but in the meantime I'd love to hear other cartographers' reaction to it.