Good for educational purposes.

books:

	• Reader's Digest Illustrated Great World Atlas Editors of Reader's Digest Readers Digest, 1997 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Good for educational purposes.

Reader's Digest has released a world atlas in which especially the thematic section stands out. Some eighty pages, including a detailed listing of the nations of the world, provide a colorful overview of a variety of topics of our earth. Many of these are about climate and vegetation, but there are pages on population issues and energy use as well. The maps have been commissioned from Rand McNally and resemble those in the Rand McNally Millennium world atlas and Portrait World Atlas. The 153 maps are fairly accurate and detailed, but color usage is rather saturated and not easy on the eye. For the higher latitudes, a strange purple color was chosen, and white for the even higher altitudes. This does not give the maps a natural look; the gray relief shading does nothing to improve that; it even makes the maps less legible at some spots (for example Romania). The world is covered fairly well-balanced, but with a little too much emphasis on Europe, and Asia is underrated. The index-gazetteer contains some 45,000 names, which is well below the average of atlases of this size (at least 60,000). The 32-page Nations of the World section comes with official flags, demographic statistics and a brief description of each country, which is very informative. All in all this atlas does contain a wide variety of information, but if you want an atlas with a large index and a large chance of finding the place you are looking for, there are better atlases in this class. For educational purposes, though, this atlas would be a fine choice.

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A great atlas, except...

I agree with the Reference Editor's assessment: the topographical maps are informative, large and easy to read. And each map page includes a very convenient inset showing that page's relative position to other maps.My one complaint is that the index locates place names by their grid coordinates, rather than by latitude and longitude. I find this an unfortunate omission not only by this atlas, but by most others. Of the affordable world atlases I've seen, only Goode's and the Oxford Concise use this very handy way of indexing place names.

Featuring the latest cartographic methods, including satellite-driven imagery that reflects changes in Eastern Europe, Africa, and the former Soviet Union, this timely, new atlas for the entire family furnishes an up-to-date and accurate guide to today's world."

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