![\"Atlas](\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/atlas_der_abgelegenen_inseln_2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe topic is certainly unusual. Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln<\/em> (Atlas of Remote Islands<\/em>) is a title that immediately lures you in. This book presents fifty lonely islands scattered across the world\u2019s oceans and distinguished by their desolate locations. Before I describe what\u2019s inside in more detail, I have to talk about the design, because it\u2019s crucial to the reading experience. This little atlas isn\u2019t really large or extensive like the atlases you know from school. With its 144 pages and a format noticeably smaller than a DIN A4 sheet, it\u2019s nicely compact and sits well in the hand. In terms of color and typography, it really delivers. Yellow and blue tones form the chosen palette, and combined with the typeface the book feels very elegant and harmonious\u2014and a bit old-fashioned, as if you were holding an old primer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n There is a chapter for the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, each introduced by a yellow double-page spread. It presents the region and marks the individual islands that are featured in that chapter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Within the chapters, the individual islands are then presented, with each island getting a double-page spread. The right-hand page shows a map of the island, very much in the manner of an atlas. On the left you first see information about the island\u2014beautifully visualized. I love all kinds of infographics and lovingly designed visualizations, and this book really gets that right. In my view, it\u2019s a template for any communication design textbook.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n First come the name (also in different languages and variants), the area, and the number of inhabitants. A small globe shows the island\u2019s position. Then the distances to key reference points are displayed on a very stylish measuring scale. Below that there\u2019s a timeline with the decisive milestones in the island\u2019s history. Leafing through, you quickly get your bearings, and browsing the book is genuinely fun.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n After that comes a text about the island. At first I was a bit disappointed, because I expected a clear, encyclopedic outline\u2014like in a lexicon, listing vegetation, appearance, and every possible fact in a Wikipedia-like style. But that\u2019s not the case. The text does, of course, often address the island\u2019s characteristics, but it consists of anecdotes and short stories that took place there. And they\u2019re a pleasure to read, because the fates, the events on each island, and what makes each islet unique vary wildly. Naturally it\u2019s about shipwrecks, but also penal colonies; an island where France tested a nuclear bomb; German dropouts founding their own colony and a woman declaring herself a baroness; a tiny population that is color-blind; the mutinous Bounty<\/em>; Antarctic islands with penguins and whaling; and much, much more. The tales surrounding these small specks\u2014these islands scattered wildly across the globe\u2014are as diverse as humanity itself. It\u2019s pure enjoyment and entertainment to browse the book and read these sometimes quirky, tragic, entertaining, and in any case varied texts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A foreword by Schalansky briefly introduces the fascination of atlases and sketches what awaits you in this book. All in all, you won\u2019t need more than an evening to read it. That evening, however, will be very entertaining, and you\u2019ll surely pick it up again. The anecdotes are too varied, and this little volume is too beautiful. I often caught myself googling individual islands; it\u2019s fun to look up more information and images. It\u2019s a bit like the Wikipedia effect: you go from one thing to another, leafing through the little atlas and then clicking your way through the internet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Of course you can\u2019t help thinking about the islands you\u2019ve visited yourself. I\u2019ve been to a few\u2014and surprisingly different ones. They range from Mainau Island, where I barely got an island feeling because I was standing among camera-toting seniors while always keeping the mainland in sight, to a small rocky islet in the Atlantic where the rough sea and sparse surroundings gave a very palpable sense of stranding, solitude, and abandonment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Verdict<\/strong>: Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln<\/em> (Atlas of Remote Islands<\/em>) is an exceptional and very entertaining book that convinces both through its design and its content. The anecdotes about each island are varied, diverse, and always worth reading. The well-prepared island information and the coherent choice of colors, typography, and visualization of key data make the book a real enrichment for relaxed evenings; even though you can easily read it in one sitting, it\u2019s a pleasure to keep browsing it. It rightfully won first prize from the Stiftung Buchkunst and was named the most beautiful book of 2009. Like an old primer, it radiates all the adventures and tragedies that cling to lonely islands: from shipwreck to prison island, from nuclear test site to Arctic whaling station\u2014everything is here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Book information: <\/strong>Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln<\/em> (Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will<\/em>) \u2022 Judith Schalansky \u2022 mare Verlag \u2022 144 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783866481176<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are books that sit on my wish list for quite a while because they don\u2019t immediately win me over at first glance. I first held this book in Leipzig, and leafing through it I liked it very much. But other books always seemed more interesting and more promising in terms of content, so this … <\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>
![<\/a> An island of the Heimaey Islands in Iceland doesn\u2019t appear in the book\u2014perhaps not remote enough\u2014but this is how I imagine many of the islands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nVerdict<\/strong>: Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln<\/em> (Atlas of Remote Islands<\/em>) is an exceptional and very entertaining book that convinces both through its design and its content. The anecdotes about each island are varied, diverse, and always worth reading. The well-prepared island information and the coherent choice of colors, typography, and visualization of key data make the book a real enrichment for relaxed evenings; even though you can easily read it in one sitting, it\u2019s a pleasure to keep browsing it. It rightfully won first prize from the Stiftung Buchkunst and was named the most beautiful book of 2009. Like an old primer, it radiates all the adventures and tragedies that cling to lonely islands: from shipwreck to prison island, from nuclear test site to Arctic whaling station\u2014everything is here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBook information: <\/strong>Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln<\/em> (Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will<\/em>) \u2022 Judith Schalansky \u2022 mare Verlag \u2022 144 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783866481176<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are books that sit on my wish list for quite a while because they don\u2019t immediately win me over at first glance. I first held this book in Leipzig, and leafing through it I liked it very much. But other books always seemed more interesting and more promising in terms of content, so this … <\/p>\nContinue reading “Atlas of Remote Islands \u2022 Judith Schalansky”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln \u2022 Judith Schalansky - lesestunden","description":"Es gibt B\u00fccher, die sind bei mir recht lange auf der Wunschliste, weil sie beim ersten Blick nicht gleich \u00fcberzeugen k\u00f6nnen. Dieses Buch hatte ich in Leipz"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20,48],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-nonfiction","tag-judith-schalansky"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/atlas_der_abgelegenen_inseln_beitrag.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/insel.jpg\"){kind=link}