The Worst Motorcycle in Laos, by Chris Tharp

This fantastic collection of travel essays takes its title from a shorter piece near the end of the book. The author details a comedic journey through Southern Laos on a motorcycle that may very well be the worst bike in the whole damn country. The essay is typical of Tharp's style - witty, descriptive, and no-holds-barred. He barely manages to get the bike through a trail called The Loop, suffering a series of comic misadventures, before coming to the realization that sometimes we need these calamities in order to see the real side of a place.

Throughout this short and enjoyable collection, Tharp takes us off the beaten track to a number of weird and wonderful locations across Asia, from Western China to the Philippines, from Japan to Thailand. In every instance he presents the world as fascinating, colorful, and mysterious. He lopes around drunkenly for the most part, stumbling from misadventure to misadventure, but never forgetting to clue us in on his surroundings. The result is a very funny, very informative, and strangely poignant book.

If you love travel or are interested in the food, the culture, or even the landscape of Asia, check out this cool book. If you're sick of Lonely Planet and sugary-sweet travel blogs, I'm pretty sure you'll get a kick out of Tharp's tales.