You'll never look at a travel book the same again

Lonely Planet itself weighed in, denouncing Kohnstamm as an anomaly. Its publisher noted to the Telegraph that Kohnstamm wrote only an intro to LP's Colombia book, which doesn't require a field trip. Its chief executive promised to vet every book Kohnstamm worked on.

So is Kohnstamm the travel industry's James Frey?

Not quite - after all, he outed himself. For readers, the key thing is that Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? will leave you laughing most of the time, except when the author's sexual swagger grows tiresome.

He's proud that "up to now, no one has given voice to the everyday life of the gritty miners of travel information, those who dig up the material that is then polished and sold to consumers as Travel Gospel."

He muses, "Maybe if people see what arbitrary bull- goes into the making of a guidebook, they will realize that it's just a loose tool to give basic information."

Mr. Kohnstamm, in this case, you've done your job.

Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/carlinromano.