You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall
I received this book as an ARC from Harper Collins and working title was WHERE AM I?Interestingly enough, I read this book while I was traveling. My reasons for choosing this book to review were very personal; I am extremely “directionally challenged” and Colin Ellard is a local author for me.
This book starts out with an amusing anecdote about getting lost while on a camping trip and then moves into the mechanics of how navigation through both time and space is learned, perceived and negotiated.
Being prepared for a text book type read, this reader was pleasantly surprised. WHERE AM I is obviously a well researched book and is filled with facts presented in a logical and entertaining way. This book examines travel in every form, from negotiating our own homes to traveling the world and right through the mysterious world of cyberspace. It looks at how all life forms manage to navigate through their life-space and why some are more adept at it than others.
Colin Ellard is an experimental psychologist at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. It is encouraging to me that admits he still gets lost in his home town. This book held my attention through a turbulent plane ride back to Canada, and despite the information presented, I still managed to “misplace” my car in the Park and Fly parking lot.
