What we're reading, what we're liking
Unknown Lands: The Log Books of the Great Explorers
By Francois Bellec
Living in an age when a weekend trip to London or San Juan is cheap and easy, it's nearly impossible for us to imagine how scary and insane it was for a bunch of sailors to set out on the Atlantic Ocean, known to Europeans as the "Mare Oceanum," or "a sea that led nowhere," and hope to strike land. According to Francois Bellec, in his enchanting new book, "Unknown Lands," it was dealing with the psychological barrier of the Atlantic Ocean, not, say, the compass, that was the most important tool for a successful voyage. Bellec's book -- a stunningly illustrated collection of the maps, drawings and log books of explorers from Columbus to James Cook -- brings us a little closer to the fear and then wonder that these men experienced when discovering new worlds. And something about the book leaves you a little breathless too; when it arrived at our offices, a few of us clustered around it, taking turns as we pointed and gasped with the childlike astonishment of seeing something for the first time.
-- Suzy Hansen
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