(Part 2) Best products from r/geography

At lot of people mentioned some pretty cool map books already, but these are two geography-related books I'm getting for Christmas: How the States Got Their Shapes (probably better if she's American) and Guns, Germs, and Steel. The latter is less to do with maps and more to do with how geography influences civilizations. Hope that helps!

You've already had some good suggestions, which I'd suggest following. I have a BA in geography and even after school found these interesting reads.

Cultural and Historical Geography

Eratosthenes' "Geography"

The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Race And Culture: A World View

Technical, GIS, Cartography

How to Lie with Maps

Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers

An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems

I know most of these won't be of much use with a BS degree, but gives you a good foundation for thinking geographically. For the more science aspects; a good understanding of physics, chemistry, and to a lesser extent biology, will really give you a leg up when starting out.

I'm currently reading a book called Geography (that's the Amazon link) it's wonderful and links almost every strand of Geography and how they all relate to each other. It's also not very long or complex and a very easy read :)

In lieu of actually going to those places, I found two books which describe Kiribati and Vanuatu from a Western perspective. If you're interested in the area please read The Sex Lives Of Cannibals, and Getting Stoned With Savages. Although I prefer the latter, they're both great books and give an interesting perspective on the region.

I think you're mixing up two visually similar maps, with two highly different concepts.

This one that you're talking about. http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/a/aa/Annual_Average_Temperature_Map.jpg

And this that I think you should be focusing on: http://www.authentichistory.com/1914-1920/1-overview/1-origins/MAP-1914_Colonization.jpg

Also: here is a rough map of your observations about general wellbeing. http://debitage.net/humangeography/images/GDP_per_capita.png

Countries with low levels of prosperity generally have relatively recent history of slavery or other types of subjugation effecting large swathes of the population. Africa is a perfect example as shown on the second and the third map.

There are exceptions to everything, but countries with high quality of life were either colonizers (Spain, UK, Holland), or were colonized mainly through genocide (Canada, US, Australia, some southern countries in South America).

The purposeful destruction of culture and the devaluation of whole peoples seems inseparable from the process of colonization, and it sets back the people effected for over a hundred years. Take a look at what has happened to remaining native populations of Canada, the US, and Australia, and you'll see the same patterns as what you're observing in what is called "The Global South". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%E2%80%93South_divide

I could go on forever but I think studying colonization and oppression will help you explore the concepts you brought forward. This is a good resource on oppression: http://www.amazon.com/Challenging-Oppression-Confronting-Privilege-Mullaly/dp/0195429702

Remember the important difference between correlation and causation!

A different question you may also be asking now is "Why did the Northerners get to oppress the Southerners?" A lot of it has to do with luck (to have metal, to learn to use it, and to be accustomed to filthy diseases), and I think this book gives a really interesting starting point. http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552

A few months ago I attended a pretty interesting lecture by Dr. Laurence Smith of UCLA promoting his book entitled The World in 2050. He predicts that the forces of demographics, natural resources, climate change, globalization, and technology will lead a huge migration to northern rim countries in the Arctic. The issues the book addresses are probably more related to your last question about the stability of different nations in terms of resources, but I'd highly recommend reading it.

Seeing that you're interested in urban geography, Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities is a must. It's not always strictly about geography, but it's probably one of the best books written about cities in the 20th century, and it can be relevant in almost any urban geography course.

tl;dl - GIS is here to stay, learn computer skills, and consider where you want to apply your skills.

I just graduated with a BA in Geography and I kinda feel bad for those few students that dodged any GIS classes. It seems to be where geography is going, if not already there, so make sure you at least take the intro course. If GIS is what you decide to focus on, it is an ever-and-rapidly-evolving thing so computer languages are more frequently required by employers (check out r/gisjobs). My department focused on python and my prof was super stoked about this book.
I have one regret, and that's not minoring or double majoring in biology. I took a biogeography course (distributions, island biogeography, etc) and a pyrogeography & fire science course. Biology would have really given me nice credentials to apply GIS to specific things a "geographer" or "GIS analyst" might not have the credentials for.
Have fun and embrace your inner geonerd!
(editted: manbearcat might like the python book I mentioned.)

http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Geography-Encyclopedia-Complete-World/dp/0794526985

When I was about her age I received one of these as a gift. I was able to use it to help with some school assignments. Assuming the newer editions are like the copy I have it covers a lot and is very informative.

This is a textbook recommended by my cartography proff, there's some pretty cheap used copies on amazon

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/0697384950/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

Academic GIS --> Chrisman's Exploring Geographic Information Systems is a great, comprehensive look at why and how we manipulate geographic information on computers. It's completely software agnostic (applies just as well to QGIS as ArcMap) and talks about the reasoning behind GIS operations. Don't look to this for information about LiDAR or inverse Kriging, but a solid intro to information science via geography.

Massachusetts had deeded lands in Wrentham, Millville, and Blackstone. Founded on tolerance and understanding, Rhode Island accommodated Massachusetts' claims and allowed its northern border to dip southwest. Being more traditionally Puritan like its neighbor Massachusetts, Connecticut insisted on a more level northern border that occasionally allowed a few notches. (Source)

Check out Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America, Colin Woodward's American Nations, and Dante Chinni's Our Patchwork Nation -- these are excellent primary sources for such a project.

I took a Human Geography course in community college. Went over this book chapter by chapter. Covers loads of general information on diverse geography subjects. I really enjoyed it and still reference that book from time to time.

If anyone is truly interested in this subject:

The Myth of Continents

I had to read it for a grad class a couple years ago and it covers this question in detail. It was a tough read, and I actually forget most of it. Maybe I'll look at it again sometime soon.

Check other two comments - also I've found Introduction to Geography, it's good to refresh on basics!

I have this up in my uni room its very nice:
World Executive, Poster Size, tubed : Wall Maps World (National Geographic Reference Map) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1597752088/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_pD0oybFCH7259

This is a bit higher level than the grids, but worth reading all the same: How the States Got Their Shapes