the only way out is through

There's been a rash of writing available that takes the reader around the world. So if you can't afford the ridiculous cost of airfare these days, you can be an armchair globetrotter.

Coudal Partners offers an excellent series of field-tested books: writers reporting on the reading of a certain book in a certain place. Jonathan Eig reads A Confederacy of Dunces in New Orleans, Scott Korb reads Gilead in Brooklyn, Joel Reese reads The Exorcist in Buenos Aires, and many more...

Salon has debuted their Literary Guide to the World, wherein you can find reports on the literary scene from what I assume is a growing collection of locations. Right now, you can travel to Ireland with John Banville, Togo with Matt Steinglass, Vietnam with Tom Bissell, as well as Zimbabwe, Whitechapel, Havana, Arizona, and Martha's Vineyard.

On a more somber note, the New Yorker features writing on "Life During Wartime" from a variety of contributors, locations, and eras, such as Aleksandar Hemon on Yugoslavia (1991) and Robert Stone on Antarctica (1958).

If you still haven't been out enough, there are always "travel dispatches from a shrinking planet" at World Hum.
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