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Unruly Places
Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies | Alastair Bonnett
A tour of the world’s hidden geographies—from disappearing islands to forbidden deserts—and a stunning testament to how mysterious the world remains today At a time when Google Maps Street View can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemite’s remotest trails and cell phones double as navigational systems, it’s hard to imagine there’s any uncharted ground left on the planet. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination. Bonnett’s remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no man’s lands, and floating islands. He explores places as disorienting as Sandy Island, an island included on maps until just two years ago despite the fact that it never existed. Or Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and crowning his wife as a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where walking from the grocery store’s produce section to the meat counter can involve crossing national borders. An intrepid guide down the road much less traveled, Bonnett reveals that the most extraordinary places on earth might be hidden in plain sight, just around the corner from your apartment or underfoot on a wooded path. Perfect for urban explorers, wilderness ramblers, and armchair travelers struck by wanderlust, Unruly Places will change the way you see the places you inhabit.
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keithmalek
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Pickpick

Very interesting. And by reading this, I learned what the term "dogging" means, which I wasn't expecting to learn from a book like this. ?

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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Good trivia question!

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keithmalek
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Bangladesh

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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Every so often, water was dropped into the tray, producing huge flashes of white-hot flame that leaped as high as forty feet. A typical Starfish site might contain 14 Boiler Fires and burn through 25 tons of fuel every 4 hours.

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keithmalek

Decoys were widely employed throughout England during the war. After an air raid on Coventry in November 1940, work started on building massive "Starfish" decoys outside nearly all major urban areas, whose purpose was to fool pilots into thinking they were flying directly over a burning city. By January 1943, more than 200 Starfish sites had been built.

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Smarkies
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A book to dip in and out of. Interesting places were highlighted (floating islands, ephemeral places, breakaway nations) and the topic of "borders" is brought up and considered.

#bookspin

rockpools Sounds fantastic. Stacked! 2y
29 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

From an island that doesn‘t exist (despite being on all the maps AND Google Earth), to a place between countries, to an island ferociously protected by an uncontacted tribe, Unruly Places looks at unique places around the world. Really interesting stuff, though go for the print version, as the audio is dreadful.

#ReadingAmericas2023 #ElSalvador (would also work for Honduras, Brazil, Colombia)

vivastory This sounds fascinating!! 2y
BarbaraBB Stacked. This sounds totally up my alley 2y
Librarybelle Stacking! 2y
59 likes5 stack adds3 comments
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Dirk777
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I enjoyed the escapism of this book and often found myself putting it down at the end of a chapter to google the exotic places described. The author encourages the reader to reflect on their own sense of place and how it can reassure and comfort but also disorientate and unsettle. This a good read for anyone curious about the human relationship to place and how our ideas of freedom, escape and creativity are intrinsically linked.

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hwreads
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I loved this book. It's like a travelogue mixed with an anthropology text book, in the best way.

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yourfavouritemixtape
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I enjoyed this very much. There‘s loads of cultural anthropology in it. Bonnett picks a place, tells its story and with it also a lot more in a greater sceme. Also, it‘s a very light read even though it‘s quite scientific.