This was fun to look through on the bus and I will leave it on the book truck in the lobby of the VA Hospital tomorrow where it will find a pleased reader within an hour or two. It is lighthearted enough to perhaps cheer up old soldiers! In fact, I think the lobby will do without and I will send it to the old soldiers and sailors' home).
This is NOT for little kids ("Language!" said mom).
It includes many of the more obscure places such as islets in the Atlantic Ocean owned by Brazil and Jan Mayen in the Norwegian Sea (north of the Faroes).
Mr. Robinson, a Brit, begins well with a brief introduction identifying the universe, the earth's core and mantle, etc. Population, capital, language, area, and official name are given for each nation.
Sample for Canada: "This is the bit of North America that the English didn't want, agreeing as they did with Voltaire that it was nothing more than a 'few acres of snow.' So France snapped it up, then let the Queen of England have some of it as long as she agreed to make the toilet signs in French too. These days the primary function of Canada is to be the word that more cultured Americans use when asked by Europeans where they come from."
Some endnotes. Index.
This is NOT for little kids ("Language!" said mom).
It includes many of the more obscure places such as islets in the Atlantic Ocean owned by Brazil and Jan Mayen in the Norwegian Sea (north of the Faroes).
Mr. Robinson, a Brit, begins well with a brief introduction identifying the universe, the earth's core and mantle, etc. Population, capital, language, area, and official name are given for each nation.
Sample for Canada: "This is the bit of North America that the English didn't want, agreeing as they did with Voltaire that it was nothing more than a 'few acres of snow.' So France snapped it up, then let the Queen of England have some of it as long as she agreed to make the toilet signs in French too. These days the primary function of Canada is to be the word that more cultured Americans use when asked by Europeans where they come from."
Some endnotes. Index.
