Here’s a recommendation for a book I haven’t even finished yet.
Yes, a whole book about street addressing. It’s like one of those long-form New Yorker articles on a subject you never thought about and can’t imagine would be of sustained interest, like surveying. You would be wrong.
It begins among the unaddressed in Kolkata and ends … well, I don’t know yet. This is not a book to rush. I save each chapter to consume one at a time, like selecting a chocolate in a particularly tempting box. Nor are there a lot of empty calories. I’ve gained all kinds of related information and insights (why American cities use numbers to name streets, why Japanese don’t use names at all).
Indeed, I wish I had read the chapter on Korea and Japan (“Must streets be named?”) before visiting Tokyo. I would have seen the city in a different way, more like the Japanese see their cities (and the world).
This book is about culture, not just numbers (or lack of them), and why urbanism is such a key to understanding the issues (like race and power) that capture our attention today.
Thanks for the reminder about this book, Gordon! I just downloaded it from Audible, and I can’t wait to listen to it while taking beautiful walks in Cascadia! 🙂