If you’re into maps, then you’re also probably the sort of person who, when flying, asks for a window seat and does nothing but stare out the window for the duration of the trip. Though I frequently ask for an aisle seat for medical reasons, that’s me in a nutshell. On takeoffs and landings I’ve tried to identify suburbs and individual streets passing below; I’ve been able to identify towns at night from their patterns and by day from the surrounding landscape (Lloydminster and Gull Lake, Saskatchwean, respectively, if you’re curious).

Gregory Dicum’s Window Seat: Reading the Landscape from the Air is in that vein: it’s sort of a field guide to the North American landscape from the vantage point of cruising altitude. The web site that promotes the book provides some interesting samples. Via Boing Boing.