On Monday I featured three ways to explore the news through maps. I like the idea of using maps to give students some geographic context for the stories that they read. That idea isn’t limited to news stories. That’s why I’ve long enjoyed the site Novels on Location.

Novels on Location helps readers find novels according to the story’s geographical setting. When you visit Novels on Location you can find novels by clicking on the placemarks that you see or by using the location search bar in the upper, right corner of the site. If you want to contribute to Novels on Location you can do so very quickly by simply entering a location then entering the title and author of your favorite book set in that location.

An Ocean of Books is a Google Arts & Culture experimental site. An Ocean of Books is a concept map of authors and their books. The purpose of An Ocean of Books is to represent authors’ footprints on the web and their relationships, via the web, to other authors. The size of an author’s presence on the web is displayed as an island on An Ocean of Books. The authors’ presences on the web isn’t a reflection of social media rather it’s a reflection of frequency of search and content published about them and their works.

Applications for Education
Novels on Location and An Ocean of Books could both help students discover new books to read. Novels on Location can help them find books based on location while An Ocean of Books can help students find books based on connections between an author they like and those that might be similar.