Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way

Bond, Michael

ISBN 10: 1509841067 / ISBN 13: 9781509841066

Published by Picador / Pan, London, 2020

About this Item

First impression. Size: 8vo 7 3/4 - 9 3/4". x + 288pp. Internally clean. Binding firm, spine cocked. Dust Jacket slightly creased. Edges browned slightly. Illustrated. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Geography & Maps; Natural History & Resources. ISBN/EAN: 9781509841066. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 52104.

Seller Inventory # 52104

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way
• Publisher: Picador / Pan, London
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509841067
• ISBN 13: 9781509841066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Geography & Maps

About this title

Synopsis

'[A] fascinating, incisive account of how the human brain evolved to keep us orientated . . . Beautifully written and researched.' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

The physical world is infinitely complex, yet most of us are able to find our way around it. We can walk through unfamiliar streets while maintaining a sense of direction, take shortcuts along paths we have never used and remember for many years places we have visited only once. These are remarkable achievements.

In Wayfinding, Michael Bond explores how we do it: how our brains make the ‘cognitive maps’ that keep us orientated, even in places that we don’t know. He considers how we relate to places, and asks how our understanding of the world around us affects our psychology and behaviour.

The way we think about physical space has been crucial to our evolution: the ability to navigate over large distances in prehistoric times gave Homo sapiens an advantage over the rest of the human family. Children are instinctive explorers, developing a spatial understanding as they roam. And yet today few of us make use of the wayfaring skills that we inherited from our nomadic ancestors. Most of us have little idea what we may be losing.

Bond seeks an answer to the question of why some of us are so much better at finding our way than others. He also tackles the controversial subject of sex differences in navigation, and finally tries to understand why being lost can be such a devastating psychological experience.

For readers of writers as different as Robert Macfarlane and Oliver Sacks, Wayfinding is a book that can change our sense of ourselves.

About the Author

Michael Bond, the author of the acclaimed Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way, is a writer specializing in human behaviour and a former editor and reporter at New Scientist. He won the 2015 British Psychological Society Prize for The Power of Others and is currently teaching writing as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University.