"The Atlas of the Real World" is a vivid, striking book.  When you first thumb through it, the collection of brightly-colored funhouse-distorted maps looks amusing, if a little baffling.  At first glance the maps look like a child's abstract drawings of the world.  On one, the USA appears as large rounded balloon shape, while the whole of South America is squished into a tiny sliver.  On another map, South America is proportionally larger than we are accustomed to seeing, and the USA is a compact blob in the corner.  What gives?

The secret is that in the first map the sizes of the countries are proportional to the number of patents issued to that country in 2002. In the second map, the sizes are based on the number of people in that country living on $10-20 per day.

This kind of map, with the countries distorted in size according to some measurement, is called a "cartogram".  Cartograms are a relatively new device in map-making.  The first were made in the 19th century.  They are difficult to make without computers, so they have become much more accessible in the past 30 years or so.

Each cartogram represents one measurement (for example, car exports, beef imports, population, wealth distribution).  In a cartogram representing per-capita fuel imports, a country that imports twice as much fuel per person as another is drawn twice as large as the other, regardless of the physical sizes of the real countries.  This leads to the funhouse distortion effect when a country excels beyond others in a particular measurement.

Some of the distortions are what you expect.  For example the top 3 per-capita crude oil exporters are United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Norway.  But some are suprising, such as map 115, Exports of Machinery.  I depicts two huge blobs for Western Europe and Japan, whileother countries of the world are essentially shrunk into nothingness.  (Switzerand tops the list at  $1075/person, while the USA registers $2/person).

The Atlas of the Real Wolrd is a beautiful book.  Some "data books" try to present information in a variety of ways, using different display techniques for each data set.  That means you have to calibrate yourself for each new map or graph, to "tune in" to the methodology of that data set.   The Atlas of the Real World has picked a single device, the cartogram, and doggedly presents every data set through the same prism. You could argue that cartograms aren't the most useful map for every situation, but in this case picking one method and sticking to it leaves your mind free to think about the data being presented -- the story being told -- on each page.

No one map tells a complete story.  The only real problem I have with this book is the same one I have with any book of this type.  When presented with one answer in the form of a chart, map, or graph, I often find myself asking a new question.  What would the Machinery Export map look like if it was based on total export amount, rather than per-capita?  But, I encounter this problem all the time, even when reading the daily newspaper, so it's not fair to fault this atlas too much on that point.

The breadth of topics covered in the atlas is staggering.  Some of the categories are: Natural Resources, Travel and Transport, Trade,  Economy, Social Issues, Environment.  Within each category there are many maps, some expected and some I never would have thought of.  The "Death and Disaster" subcategory has the usual Life Expectancy (map 287) and Child Mortality(map 295) data, but the Communications category has a display of Telephone Faults (map 236) which measures the number of phone line outages experienced per 100 lines in each country.  (The USA doesn't even register on this map, but the Pacific island nation of Tonga is in bad shape).

Each map is covered on one page of the atlas.  In addition to the map, there is a table of the numerical values for the top 20 territories in the map, and a small bar graph showing the values for aggregated regions of the world (e.g. "North America", "Western Europe").  There is some accompanying text for each one to explain the data in a little more detail, and about half of the maps include a relavent quote from a notable person which lends additional perspective to the story of that map.

The table of contents is well-organized and complete.  If you should want to look up the distribution of wealth on the planet (maps 143-148) or find out what countries import and export the most fruit (maps 079-080), you won't have any trouble finding the right maps.

The Atlas of the Real World is really a companion piece to the authors' Worldmapper web site at www.worldmapper.org. The site contains some things you won't find in the book, such as morphing animations and PDF posters for each map.

I have spent several hours looking at these maps, and plan to spend many more.  You could start at the beginning and read them straight through to the end.  However, I prefer to open a page at random and see where it takes me.