Post

Non-cartographic book rec: "Automatic Noodle" by Annalee Newitz is a cozy dystopian scifi about robots starting a noodle joint in San Francisco. Gave me powerful Golden State feels! Newitz even used Joel Pomerantz's map Seep City to ensure the city hydrology worked! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Overall I found it sweet, imaginative and richly explored. Gave me a killer restaurant list for the next time I'm in SF. It's an extremely millennial book in its vocabulary and attitude. Sometimes that felt too on-the-nose? 8/10 ideal quick read best served with a spicy hot noodle soup.

Because I know every geographer in the Bay Area (lol I wish), I actually had a beer with Joel Pomerantz in like 2018 when Seep City came out. He did incredible, exhaustive research on the history of San Francisco's hydrology and hid did it all without GIS. I wanna say he used Illustrator. WTF.