I picked up Ma Jian's
Red Dust a few years ago after flipping through it at Powells. It's a travel memoir of China, with the interesting twist that it was written by a Chinese artist, rather than a Westerner. After getting fed up with his job and politics Ma decided to see his country and traveled for 3 years in a very low-budget way. I can't even imagine taking a similar trip around the US.
posted by Kristin Buxton at 2:00 PM 
