Surely, all the best llamas have globes

December 5, 2020 9:16 PM

In my online trivia league, geography is one of my weakest categories, and I was thinking if I had a globe I could regularly study it might help

Since I think the way I'm most likely to benefit is to have it sitting on my desk where I can check it out while waiting on brief computer tasks. As such, I'm looking for a globe that's:

• Labeled clearly with at least country and major city names
• Attractive: something that serves as decoration, or at least isn't conspicuously clunky
• Not absurdly expensive

And if it's available to purchase directly from an artist or at least from a company that's more Etsy than Amazon, that would be a bonus.

Like, literally Etsy would be fine. I like Etsy.

posted by Cogito to Shopping (8 answers total)

As a fellow llama who is also terrible at geography, I think a globe wouldn’t help much — at the scale of something that would fit on your desk, it’s just way too small. You’d hardly be able to see half the countries in Europe, much less rivers and so on. Maybe a nice world atlas you could flip through?
posted by LizardBreath at 3:18 AM on December 6, 2020

Geography is one of my worst categories as well despite having a globe nearby and a world map on the wall, but having something up close might be helpful, at least for neighboring countries and large bodies of water. Perhaps a desk mat would do the trick.
posted by pendrift at 4:28 AM on December 6, 2020

What's helped me most with geography is photos and stories. That prompts my memory more than a list of names and capitals. So, in that spirit, what about Alvaro Rojas' "Stories from my travels to every country in the world"? It comes as an ebook and has photos and a brief write-up of an experience in each country. (Suggested because as a fellow globe-owner, I agree with LizardBreath.)
posted by cocoagirl at 5:39 AM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

One problem with globes is that country names and borders change frequently. My childhood globes is pretty useless for most all of the former Soviet countries. You get stuck at a point in time and you can't get updates unless you replace the globe. I'd recommend lots of old-fashioned web surfing to acquaint yourself with world geography.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:17 PM on December 6, 2020

Geography quizzes on sporcle.com.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:15 PM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

If your goal is to learn, there is an Android app called Seterra, where you can take quizzes and learn countries and cities of the world. I've found 15 minutes of "study" a day playing this game has allowed me to re-learn all 50 states, all Latin and South American countries, and the Carribean. Working on Europe and Africa next!
posted by Arctostaphylos at 2:16 PM on December 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

Seconding Seterra. You can use it online also. They have a few different learning tools. Quizzes for not just states and countries but capitals, flags, and geographical features. Oooh, should you need it, I see they have anatomy now too!
posted by goodsearch at 9:40 PM on December 6, 2020

In college, we had a large world map in the kitchen and would look up places from the news. We also added places not on the map (Palestine, Tibet...). It was nice to have it somewhere you could zone out looking at place names while you make dinner or whatever.
posted by momus_window at 7:26 AM on December 7, 2020