A World of Inspiration

My friend and fellow travel blogger, Keith Jenkins of Velvet Escape, previously wrote about how his interests in travel and geography were fostered when his parents gave him an atlas. While I've never had an atlas until I was well into my 20's (I'm in my 30's now), it is only recently that I realized what I've been missing out all these years - a simply great reference book!

There are numerous atlas publishers in the market today, but just like my collection of dictionaries and thesauri, the name I trust when it comes to reference materials is Oxford. At nearly 450 pages, Oxford's Atlas of the World by Oxford University Press covers a wealth of information that is updated yearly. As a travel writer and blogger, it is an indispensable tool for fact-checking.

The chapters in this atlas contain authoritative information on every country in the world. These are just some of the sections that can be found in this practical tome:

The "Gazetteer of Nations" summarizes the demographics, geography, climate, history, politics, and economy of each country, illustrated with their respective flags.

"World Cities Map" houses select urban maps of the most popular cities of the world.

"World Maps" features cartography by Philip's of both physical and political demarcations, with close-up images of each country.

The "Geographical Glossary and Index" catalogues 84,000 towns and cities, including their latitude/longitude, that you can cross-reference within the book.

Who can benefit from Oxford's Atlas of the World? Students and teachers of the social sciences, writers and journalists, researchers and analysts, geography aficionados, travel professionals, and travellers. And regular people like us.

My husband and I have this game wherein we name as many countries or cities that we can from A-Z; we also love to map out their location on earth. Sometimes, we get really competitive, but it's always done in the spirit of good fun! Oxford's Atlas of the World has come to the rescue (of our marriage, perhaps) whenever there is a debate over certain points. We often share this game with our daughter, hoping that we can cultivate the same genuine interest in the world around her. Hopefully, we will be racking in some book mileage on our atlas as we plan our 'round-the-world trip!

*A copy of Oxford's Atlas of the World was provided to me courtesy of Oxford University Press. However, all opinions expressed herein are solely mine.