National Geographic Traveler has just unveiled a new web-exclusive book review column: Don George’s Trip Lit.

Don George is a giant on the travel writing scene: he’s edited literary travel anthologies, worked as Lonely Planet’s Global Travel Editor, and was the founding editor of Salon’s much-missed Wanderlust section (to which our own Rolf Potts contributed more than a few essays). George literally wrote the book on travel writing – his Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing is a fixture on my shelf. He’s also the chair of the annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, and I had the pleasure of meeting him there this past summer.

The first thing I noticed about the new column is that it’s by no means restricted to “travel books” in the usual sense: novels, short stories and essays all make appearances alongside the more traditional travel narratives and memoirs. I’ve always believed that fiction and even poetry can say just as much (and sometimes more) about a city or region than the books that set out explicitly to explain or document the same places, so I’m thrilled to be able to read about Don George’s recommendations each month. After all, a “books to read” list can never be too long, can it?