I love me a good coffee table book. And I'm really happy to hear that they seem to be slightly immune from the rest of the book decline. I have wanted to create a coffee table book for a long time, so it's funny you should bring this topic up, Jamie. In another life, my husband wrote and I dabbled in photography. We would love to write about and photograph once-thriving-now-desolate little towns. You know the kind: there's a little downtown area where half of the shops are for rent or boarded up, there's a set of empty railroad tracks, there's usually an old gas station, and there's almost always a 1950s hotel that's still attempting to limp along. I could see it being a series of books, by region. Someday...
I'm a sucker for home decor magazines and the homes they feature always have coffee tables and book shelves filled with beautiful books. I rarely buy them myself because I can't justify the expense. And if I have a little extra cash, I'd rather buy a new pair of Steve Maddens (see? economical.).
Here are the few that I have, and I'm not even sure they classify as "coffee table" books. I keep them out, so maybe they are because I say they are?
I think
Young House Love is probably the most picturesque in this stack, but Real Simple's
The Organized Home is also so beautifully photographed and inspiring.
I would like to own
Domino's
The Book of Decorating. I was a fan of that magazine before Conde Nast shut down production.
I also think
The Little Book of Lettering is so well-done.
A friend of mine has
100 Years of Fashion Illustration and it's just perfect.
And just because it's a hilarious conversation starter, I think it would be fun to own
Cake Wrecks. The design of the book makes my eyes bleed, but it's a hilarious collection of professionally designed cakes that are just so wrong. The creator, Jen Yates, started it as a
blog.
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