ENGLISH BELOW
Slučajnim spletom okolnosti, rođen sam 1975. godine u Gornjem Milanovcu. U njemu sam proveo prve dve godine života, a kasnije su usledile mnogobrojne selidbe po raznim lokacijama severne Šumadije. Verovatno su te selidbe uticale na mene, da još kao dete uzmem neku geografsku kartu tadašnje Jugoslavije i da potražim gde sam sve stanovao. I tako se u meni stvorila ta ljubav prema geografskim kartama i atlasima, koja traje do dana danšnjeg, kada su papirne mape sve ređe. Ja nemam ništa protiv elektronskih atlasa – naprotiv, smatram ih odličnim načinom modernizacije predstavljanja geografskih objekata. Međutim, kod mene u kući u svakom trenutku mora da postoji bar jedan solidan štampani geografski atlas, makar ga prelistao samo jednom godišnje.
Iako mi na diplomi piše da sam inženjer informatike, geografija i geografske karte su mi ostale pred očima sve vreme, a on-line atlasi su mi među najdražim i najposećenijim Internet sajtovima. Toliko vremena utrošenog na razgledanje i analiziranje raznih mapa dovelo je do toga da sam odavno počeo da uočavam razne neobičnosti, pa je sve to bilo podsticaj da napišem ovu knjigu i da na jednom mestu predstavim što više tih neobičnih pojava.
Nadam se da moje knjige mogu biti zanimljiva dopuna svima onima koji, amaterski, profesionalno ili školski, izučavaju geografiju, kartografiju, politiku, jezike i društvo. Knjige su tako napisane da mogu da se čitaju na preskok, tako što bi svako mogao da nađe poneki zanimljiv tekst, a da ostale samo prelista.
By a combination of circumstances, I was born in 1975 in Gornji Milanovac. I spent only the first two years of my life there, since my family kept relocating a lot, in the vicinity of Belgrade. These relocations probably influenced me as a child, because at some moment in my childhood I took a geographical map of the then Yugoslavia trying to find every place where we had lived. And so started my fascination with geography maps and atlases, a fascination that has lasted until today, when paper maps are almost a thing of the past. I have nothing against electronic atlases – on the contrary, I consider them an excellent way of modernizing the representation of geographic objects. However, in my house at all times there must be at least one solid printed geographic atlas, even if I glance at it once a year.
Although my diploma says that I am an IT engineer, geography and geographic maps never stopped occupying my attention, and online atlases became one of my favourite websites. So much time spent browsing and analyzing different maps has led me to notice a lot of unusual things, and that has been an inspiration to write this book and to try to present, in one place, as many of these strange phenomena as possible.
I hope that my books can be an interesting addition to all those (amateurs, professionals or students) who study geography, cartography, politics, languages, and society. These books are written in such a way that it can be read in parts, so that everyone can find something of interest, and other chapters just skimmed though.
Zoran Nikolić 