Library book group reads, ‘Airplane Mode’ by Shahnaz Habib
Author Shahnaz Habib. Photo from Amazon.
Book asks, ‘what does it mean to be a joyous traveler when we live in the ruins of colonialism, capitalism and climate change?’
– The Paso Robles City Library’s book group will discuss “Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel” by Shahnaz Habib on Wednesday, June 26, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the library’s conference room.
This witty personal and cultural history of travel from the perspective of a Third World-raised woman of color asks: what does it mean to be a joyous traveler when we live in the ruins of colonialism, capitalism and climate change? For Shahnaz Habib, travel and travel writing have always been complicated pleasures. Habib threads the history of travel with her personal story as a child on family vacations in India, an adult curious about the world, and an immigrant for whom roundtrips are an annual fact of life.
Threaded through the book are inviting and playful analyses of obvious and not-so-obvious travel artifacts: passports, carousels, bougainvillea, guidebooks, trains, the idea of wanderlust itself. Together, they tell a subversive history of travel as a Euro-American mode of consumerism—but as any traveler knows, travel is more than that. As an immigrant whose loved ones live across continents, Habib takes a deeply curious and joyful look at a troubled and beloved activity.
For more information, and to register, click here.
