After he graduated from college, Gregory went to work for Dell Computers. He spent a year trying to adapt to corporate culture, but then he was laid off. A security guard escorted Gregory down to the parking lot and watched while he packed his personal belongings into his VW Passat and drove away. Gregory spent the rest of the summer restless and morose. Finally, he sought the advice of his Uncle Ben. "Why don't you do some reading," said his uncle, "and see the world before you decide on a career?" Gregory sold his car and bought an anthology of world literature and a round-the-world ticket. On the plane to Nairobi, he decided that the anthology was too heavy, so he decided to tear away each section as he completed it. He left The Iliad in a hotel near Mount Kilimanjaro. By day, Gregory sailed west to the island of Lamu; by night he read, and tore away, The Canterbury Tales. Someone at a youth hostel asked, "Why aren't you reading African literature in Africa?" Gregory agreed that would be a logical plan, and he turned to Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel. When he was finished, he left the play in the hostel and boarded another plane to Cairo, and the Valley of the Kings.

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