I love maps. Which is ironic, considering how bad I am with directions. This love includes both maps of real and fictional places. The maps are one of the best parts of some fantasy series. Where would The Lord of the Rings be without those awesome topographies? I honestly bought an atlas of Middle Earth while reading Tolkien’s works, and actually read them both carefully.

So, while there are maps that go along with narratives, maps can also be read on their own. They may not tell you a story with characters and conflict. But maps can still give you a lot of information. Like where you are, and where you’re going. And what’s on the other side of that river.

GPS devices and Google Maps have made paper maps somewhat obsolete. But there’s still a niche for maps among those who take the word ‘orienteering’ seriously or those of us who get lost in museums. We often forget that parts of this world were not recorded by cartographers, and explorers had to wander into blank places on the map to figure stuff out.

Now, those blank places only exist in fictional maps. And most of the time, those are labeled with an arrow and the warning that “Here be dragons.” Seriously—that used to be a real thing when ancient cartographers would create maps and didn’t know what lay beyond the edge.

Terms that will come in handy when it comes to reading a map.

• Compass Rose: North. South. East. West. This tells you which direction each of the directions is. Just make sure to orient your map correctly to make sure they all line up correctly.
• Map Scale: Most maps aren’t to actual scale. Every map of the world is smaller than the world it’s actually in. Therefore, they have scales that show how much smaller. Like, one inch equals one mile, and so on.
• Legend: Maps use symbols to represent important landmarks and points of interest, like mountains and bathroom stops. The legend translates these symbols for you.

Of course, some books contain nothing but maps. This kind of book is called an Atlas—named after the greek titan who carried the world on his back. I bet Atlas didn’t have much time to read while carrying the world around.