Maps to Anywhere

      Maps to Anywhere to me was a different type of book than i had originally thought it was going to be. Just from the title i picture different types of environment through the eyes of the main character. But it true what they say "you cant judge a book by it cover." As I first skimmed through the book i thought it was a continuous thing until I actually started to read. the book was entirely based on short nonfiction stories. I had trouble reading at first for I couldn't understand where the story was going but then I started looking more carefully at each individual story and i got a better understanding. To tell the truth I still don't see how they all connect,  but individually I like them.
    As I read I tried making a connection from story to story but it was difficult because it all seemed random to me. For example from pages 17-28 it has 6 different stories "Atlantis, Capiche?, The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World, Potato Spirits, Rain Rambling through Japan, and On the Air". These stories are back to back and i did not see anything that would indicate there connected. Atlantis was mainly about him getting a haircut from Nick, Capiche was about him telling a story about Venice and in the end it was a lie, The Biggest most beautiful balcony in the world was about him seeing a lonely balcony looking into the alley and wishing he had a better balcany where he can look down on people like in romeo and Juliet and the rest all had their own story.
      One of my favorite short essays is titled "On the Air". The main concept of this part is the future. I like this one because I myself am always wondering what is going to happen to the future. The future is always on peoples minds whether is thinking about what your going to eat in the afternoon to what am i going to do with my life. I know I'm always thinking about whats going to happen to me and its mainly because we are afraid of the unknown. But the story goes on to depict the future that most people know is going to happen with the tall skyscrapers and the dome buildings and he doesn't like it. He prefers the future you see in comics with the floating cities and invisible cities that you don't know your visiting. I agree with him on that part, I know its not likely but I do prefer to envision a future like in the television. I do want to see people using flying cars, floating cities, realistic video games. But i know its highly unlikely but i still prefer my type of future to the one everyone else sees and that's why this story was one of my favorites.