General Interest Coffee Table Style Books

lynchpin

Hi All,

I'm looking for some suggestions for some books that I can pick up any time and
flick through etc. They don't have to be huge books that take up loads of space with huge pictures etc.

Books like Trivia, General Interest, Photos etc

To give you some ideas of what I'm looking for here is some books I have and some of my interests:

Books:
Making of Planet Earth
Schott's miscellany
Some irish book similar to Schott's
National Geographic Mags

Interests:
Films
Alfred Hitchcock
Soccer
Travel
Humour
Random Trivia
Nature
TV shows like Lost, The Wire, Arrested Development, etc

I hope I put my point across but if not please ask.

minusorange

Banksy's Wall and Piece

High Quality photographs of Banksy's rather excellent political graffiti. If it doesn't sound like your kind of thing then check some of his stuff out online.
This is The book people can't put down when they come around my place. Class.


I have some of the Rough Guides series. They are great for friends and guest's to flick through but also offer quite a bit of depth and info for when you want to sit back and get stuck in. I currently have The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels, Sci-Fi, Film Noir, Independent Film, Pink Floyd, Anime and Gangster Movies. But there's loads more based on Film, Music, and Books.


The QI quiz show has quiet a few coffee table books out. Quirky and intelligent. Bit of a laugh with a few drinks and the friend who thinks he knows everything.


Magnum Photos have a few books out. More expensive than the average coffee table book (and larger) but they are breathtaking collections. Again check out their website for an idea of the work they do.


An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

This is on my wish list and hope to pick it up soon. A collection of portraits from the great photographer, shot in beutifull black & white. Including Pablo Picasso, Carl Jung, Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Lucian Freud, Coco Chanel, Jean-Paul Sartre, Che Guevara and the Dalai Lama. It's hard to believe he met all these people.


Here's my wild card. This may sound odd and a little nerdy but if you haven't already got a dictionary pick yourself up one. I bough a fairly large Oxford one and I absolutely adore it. Sounds crazy but if you are a lover of language its essential. The larger volumes include a lot of biographical entry's and believe it or not the thing is just flat out interesting.


Chapter's book shop in Dublin have loads of coffee table material. Especially photography/art.

Vibes and Scribes in Cork get in some really classy stuff. They used to have a table or two dedicated to quirky things like graffiti, Japanese street fashion, modern art etc.


But my absolute pride and joy is Gilbert and George: The Complete Pictures. You will either love or loathe their modern art but this collection is fuc*ing class. Two 800 page large hardbacks with high quality glossy pages in a carry case. I leave it beside my book case and never stop looking at it. It was ridiculously cheap when it came out and can still be picked up for absolutely nothing. Again check it out on-line.

minusorange

I'm afraid I posted straight away without reading your interests.

I seem to have hit quiet wide of the mark but you may find something you like amongst my absurd obsessions.

994

The Dorling Kindersley book "Animal" is very good

Funglegunk

If you like films try getting the latest TimeOut Film Guide. It lists every film ever made with a quick summary and review of each, then links that film to another perhaps lesser known film in some way, so you of course have to flick to that one and read the passage on it, and so on and so on. Very addictive.

http://www.timeout.com/shop/film-guide-2009.html

phelixoflaherty

The worlds Greatest Freaks. Small paperback great value.

IvyTheTerrible

This is a big book but beautiful: Yann Arthus Bertrand's The Earth from the sky. Absolutely gorgeous pictures taken from above. Lots of nature stuff.

Also there are a good few National Geographic books of photos, with photos from older editions, very interesting stuff.

minusorange

Funglegunk wrote: »

If you like films try getting the latest TimeOut Film Guide. It lists every film ever made with a quick summary and review of each, then links that film to another perhaps lesser known film in some way, so you of course have to flick to that one and read the passage on it, and so on and so on. Very addictive.

http://www.timeout.com/shop/film-guide-2009.html

Never thought of this. Good Choice.

Carawaystick

The onions "Our dumbest century" each covers a satirical look at a year in the 20th century.

an Atlas or a road atlas - for answering queries about geting to obscure weekend destinations or finding out where the latest world disaster has happened.

a mountaineering book with lots of photos

a wildlife book


If you join your local library you can have a rotating set of books to fit the bill, and if you like a topic then you can buy or get another.

doctor evil

I've seen a few of those tomes in charity shops.

lynchpin

Thanks all for the wonderful suggestions.

Keep the suggestions rolling, disregarding my criteria, in case there are some
gems out there that I would have never have considered.

Funglegunk

I have two large hardbacks by Michael Palin on my coffee table which I'd recommend, Himalaya and New Europe. The photos are amazing, and he's a fairly witty writer (he'd want to be!). They are both broken into sections like a diary, separated by the date and the location he is in, so you can dip in and out of it fairly easily.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780312341626/Himalaya

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780297844495/New-Europe

And also Life by Lennart Nilsson, the Swedish scientist who invented that incredibly small electrion microscope photography (I think that's what it's called!) from inside the body. It full of amazing pictures of the human embryo during development, and the insides of organs etc. The drawback is its very large and quite expensive. So maybe only purchase it my description sounds amazing!

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780224076913/Life

By the way, if anybody can recommend a good coffee table book on late 20th/early 21st century war photography, I'm all ears!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents is a good one if you just want something to look at. I bought a copy for a friends birthday present a few years back and I ended up getting a second copy for myself. I got it in Easons over beside Trinity but you can get it on Amazon too.

Also the BBC Wildlife Photographer Of The Year books are pretty good too.

You can actually search "coffee table books" on Amazon and they'll give you a huge list of different ones. I guess you'd be taking a chance on if they're any good, but it might give you some ideas.

dudara

I love The Art of Looking Sideways - it's a design and art book, but it's one that you can pick up and put down quite easily. Very interesting book.

DublinWriter

Anything published by either DK or Taschen.

dudara

DublinWriter wrote: »

Anything published by either DK or Taschen.

Add Phaidon to that list and between the 3 publishers, you'll have lots to choose from.

randomguy

I like the Postsecret books. they look good on a coffee table and are great for picking up and flicking through. But wouldn't be suitable for the general public - the likes of my granny would be a bit shocked by some of the postcards.