Something for the bookish geography student (5)
I believe the answer is:
atlas
'bookish geography student' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'something for the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'alas' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for atlas that I've seen before include "One of the Titans" , "A geog. book; N. African range" , "Holder of world" , "Book of maps - fifteenth satellite of Jupiter" , "Supporter of the classics" .)