Literary Locations: Google, Books, and Maps…Oh My! January 31, 2007
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Language Arts, Literature, Maps, Reading, Reference, Social Studies, Technology, webtools , trackbackRemember watching an old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial? It usually began with one, accident-prone character eating a chocolate candy bar in close proximity to another character eating a jar of peanut butter. Hilarity ensued when the characters collided, creating a completely new flavor. Then came the punchline: “Two great tastes that taste great together!”
Let’s borrow that scenario and alter it a bit. Imagine a cartographer carrying loads of maps hustling down a busy city sidewalk. Enter a bookworm armed with volumes of great works of literature approaching from the opposite end of the street. Each character is totally unaware of the existence of the other. Scene by scene, the tension mounts as they move ever closer to a collision. Hilarity ensues when both parties finally run smack into one other with an audible KA-BOIIING!!!, atomically fusing books and maps into a completely new product. The bookworm looks at the cartographer and says, “You stuck your maps in my book!”
Cue the punchline: “Two great tastes that taste great together!”
Well, something like that has been happening at Google Book Search, a bibliophile’s paradise (by the way, dedicated readers will positively love being able to search key words and phrases in a book–imagine looking up all the times Miss Havisham or Estella appear in Great Expectations). A recent post over at Inside Google Book Search explains how readers will now have an easier and more immediate means of visualizing places mentioned in books. For example, take a look at the Jules Verne classic Around the World in Eighty Days (still on many middle and high school required reading lists). After visiting the Google Book Search entry for Around the World in Eighty Days, students and other interested readers can click on the About This Book link and see a Google map of places mentioned in the text. High school students reading works like Thomas Wolfe’s epic Look Homeward, Angel will find Google Book Search, a veritable godsend.
This simple but incredibly useful feature should make reading assignments more pleasurable and meaningful for both reluctant and dedicated readers. Even more promising is the prospect of teaching students how to use Google Earth to create their own geoliterary resources. Throw in a dollop of Google Sketchup (in the form of artistically rendered 3D models of literary domiciles and/or other structural settings) and learners might begin to look forward to their Literature classes. Who knows? After suffering from bibliomania, these budding members of the literati could even begin asking, “What should I read next?“
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[...] points on a long and fascinating journey through the world of interactive literary exploits. Google Book Search, Bookyards, LibriVox, WhatShouldIReadNext, and ReadWriteThink are also worth using as [...]
[...] points on a long and fascinating journey through the world of interactive literary exploits. Google Book Search, Bookyards, LibriVox, WhatShouldIReadNext, and ReadWriteThink are also worth using as [...]