How can I read airport maps when choosing a seat as a passenger?
It seems you already know to look up the layout of the airport, and how to check a map for which direction from the airport you want to look. The piece of the puzzle you're missing is the wind direction.

Aircraft both take off, and land into wind. So it does not matter that you are "coming from the North", if the wind is blowing from the North an aircraft will go all the way round and land on the Northerly runway. So if you were to check the weather and there is a definite Northerly tendency you would want to sit on the Right side of the aircraft. 

This is nice and easy when there is a wind, and it is forecast accurately, and you can select your seat close enough to departure to take advantage of this info. Unfortunately there are many things that can throw a curve ball here


Changing wind patterns
Lack of wind / operational reasons to 
Multiple runways


About the best you can do is be aware of the prevailing wind, and hedge your bets on which runway will be in use. You'll win some (most?) and lose some. But you'll certainly get a good view some of the time.