Most everyone is familiar with the term “coffee table books”.  These are books that are placed on a coffee table for decor or to inspire conversation.  How many pieces of furniture inspire a whole category of books?

Coffee table books tend to be oversized and heavy since the books primarily remain in their position, there is no great need for them to be easily portable.  Generally, their subject matter is confined to nonfiction, and often the subject matter is visual or related to art.  Pages often consist mostly of illustrations and photographs, often accompanied by  small blocks of text, or captions versus long sections of prose.  Since these types of books are targeted to those who might peruse the book up for a light read (or just a look), often the accompanying analysis within is of a more simplistic nature than some other books on the subject may be.   Because of this connotation, the term “coffee table book” may be used negatively to indicate a book that takes a more casual, laymans approach to the subject.

David R. Brower is often given credit for inventing the modern “coffee table book”. While David served as the executive director of the Sierra Club, he came up with an idea for a series of books combining photographs of nature and writings about nature, with, in his words, “a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance.”  The first of these coffee table books was  “This is the American Earth”, containing photographs by Ansel Adams among others with text by Nancy Newhall. This book was published in 1960 and the series became known as the “Exhibit Format” series.  Twenty titles were published eventually.

Coffee table books have their place in many areas of popular culture.  In the 1980s, the British comedy duo of Smith and Jones came out with The lavishly-tooled Smith and Jones Coffee Table Book^, the cover being designed to appear as if it could double as a coffee table. The fifth season of the Seinfeld included a story involving Kramer wanting to write a coffee table book actually about coffee tables. His idea was for the book to have legs built into the back,and coasters built into the front, so the book itself could become a coffee table.

Looking for a new table for your coffee table book?