Equator

Widely considered a jewel of contemporary travel literature, Equator is Thurston Clarke's magnificent, witty account of his solo journey along the earth's torrid midsection-a grueling twenty-five-thousand-mile odyssey that spanned three years and as many continents. His was a perilous trek across an almost surreal landscape-where a first-class hotel appeared smack in the middle of a leper colony and a one-time Pacific island paradise stood as a hideous, bomb-blasted testament to nuclear folly. Along the way Clarke encountered the world's heaviest rat, the earth's highest volcano, and the king of a Micronesian island, wearing flip-flops and a novelty T-shirt. Throughout, Clarke's unflagging sense of humor and wonder make Equator a classic of its kind.