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gracefullypunk's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book fascinating. It's part history, part biography, part cultural commentary on the way we view books as compared to other valuables.
book_concierge's review against another edition
4.0
This is an absolutely fascinating true crime account of the cartomaniac who stole hundreds of priceless maps from the stacks of such illustrious libraries as The Peabody (at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore). The aptly named Gilbert Bland Jr used several aliases and was never questioned by security or librarians. He gave every appearance of being a mild-mannered scholar. But he sliced maps out of ancient books, and then sold them to collectors.
Harvey crafts the story like the best true-crime writers. The reader knows the crime and the criminal pretty much at the outset, but it’s the hunt for why? that propels the narrative. Along the way Harvey includes considerable information about map-making and the human fascination with maps since ancient times. I was captivated from the opening lines.
Harvey crafts the story like the best true-crime writers. The reader knows the crime and the criminal pretty much at the outset, but it’s the hunt for why? that propels the narrative. Along the way Harvey includes considerable information about map-making and the human fascination with maps since ancient times. I was captivated from the opening lines.
izzyclouty's review against another edition
4.0
A meandering stream of Miles Harvey's thought processes and investigation but I did learn a lot about explorers, cartographers, history, books and maps along the way.
jeremy's review against another edition
3.0
The story of the maps is interesting. The story of the author's writing of the book is annoying. His amateur psychology was tiresome.
emheld's review against another edition
3.0
Like perusing a good map, I ranged over this one at my leisure. Harvey does a good job at making a magazine article story interesting *enough* for a full book. It's lightweight true crime.
dsinton's review against another edition
4.0
Have had this in my collection forever. Finally made the commitment and glad I did. Best parts for me were when Harvey wove together psychology, history, and actual cartography. Took a lot of effort to pull that off well.
autumnk3lly's review against another edition
slow-paced
1.0
This is quite possibly the worst book I've read in years. When I was assigned the book for an Archives class at my college, I was actually quite excited! It sounded and looked cool. A book about crime and maps? Awesome! If only it were actually well written, and not incredibly creepy to read.
Throughout the book Harvey dives into the history of cartography, as well as the life and crimes of Gilbert Bland, who stole multiple rare maps from libraries across the United States and Canada. Not only is Harvey an horrible writer (word choice, sentence structure, repetitive, too descriptive, bad pacing), he's also obsessed with Bland and full on stalked him.
Now, I fully agree that Bland is a criminal and what he did was wrong. However, instead of being given the same treatment as any other non-violent criminal, he and his family were stalked and harassed by a creepy man who saw "filling in Bland's life was like filling in a map" (Blurb on cover). Harvey tracked down Bland's family, his personal records, his criminal records, and even his medical records. He even went as far as to pull his number from some random public-records site and CALL HIM. And to absolutely no surprise, Bland did not take that well. As any sane person in this situation would have done, Bland told Harvey to 1. Never contact him again and 2. If Harvey does contact him (Bland) again, he'll press civil charges (pg.317). Bland literally calls Harvey out on stalking on pg. 318. So Harvey drops it and moves on right? No, actually Harvey got so upset that he decided to punish Bland in his own way; "he cherished his anonymity...Even the courts had not taken it away from him. But I would." (pg. 322). Listen, I don't care who you are or what you did, NO ONE DESERVES THAT. Bland was not a violent and dangerous murdered, he shouldn't've have had so much information on his personal life published against his will like that.
Miles Harvey wrote this book because he's obsessive (or as he says, "compassionate" (pg. 323)) and didn't get his way. This book was written out of spite against a man who doesn't even appear when you search his name on Google.
Throughout the book Harvey dives into the history of cartography, as well as the life and crimes of Gilbert Bland, who stole multiple rare maps from libraries across the United States and Canada. Not only is Harvey an horrible writer (word choice, sentence structure, repetitive, too descriptive, bad pacing), he's also obsessed with Bland and full on stalked him.
Now, I fully agree that Bland is a criminal and what he did was wrong. However, instead of being given the same treatment as any other non-violent criminal, he and his family were stalked and harassed by a creepy man who saw "filling in Bland's life was like filling in a map" (Blurb on cover). Harvey tracked down Bland's family, his personal records, his criminal records, and even his medical records. He even went as far as to pull his number from some random public-records site and CALL HIM. And to absolutely no surprise, Bland did not take that well. As any sane person in this situation would have done, Bland told Harvey to 1. Never contact him again and 2. If Harvey does contact him (Bland) again, he'll press civil charges (pg.317). Bland literally calls Harvey out on stalking on pg. 318. So Harvey drops it and moves on right? No, actually Harvey got so upset that he decided to punish Bland in his own way; "he cherished his anonymity...Even the courts had not taken it away from him. But I would." (pg. 322). Listen, I don't care who you are or what you did, NO ONE DESERVES THAT. Bland was not a violent and dangerous murdered, he shouldn't've have had so much information on his personal life published against his will like that.
Miles Harvey wrote this book because he's obsessive (or as he says, "compassionate" (pg. 323)) and didn't get his way. This book was written out of spite against a man who doesn't even appear when you search his name on Google.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Stalking
amberdebo's review against another edition
3.0
I recommend the first two thirds of this book, and enjoyed them. Then the author seems to realize he doesn’t have any more knowledge or evidence of the alleged point of this book, the story of art thief Gilbert Bland, and the rest of the books is such an unorganized trudge. For specifics, reviewer Lori here says it better than I can. Agree with her 100%.
eskay1891's review against another edition
2.0
Miles Harvey is the master of digressions. I get the gravity of the crime, but criminal or the Modus operandi is not something that fits True Crime genre. There are some good interesting parts about maps, but more than half are page fillers, doesn't contribute.