|
Coffee Tables
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that rests on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for portability. more...
Home
Bedding
Furniture
Bedroom Furniture
Children's Furniture
Dining Room Furniture
Kitchen Furniture
Living Room, General...
Bean Bags, Inflatables
Benches
Bookcases
CD, Video Racks
Chairs
Armchairs, Club Chairs
Barcelona Chairs
Folding Chairs
Lounge Chairs
Other Chairs
Recliners
Rocking Chairs, Gliders
Theater Seating
Chests, Cabinets
Entertainment Ctrs, TV...
Futons, Futon Covers
Futon Covers
Futon Frames
Futons
Other Futons, Futon Covers
Occasional Tables
Card & Game Tables
Coffee Tables
Console, Sofa Tables
End Tables
Other Tables
Table Sets
Tray Tables
Other Furniture
Ottomans, Footstools
Sofas, Loveseats
Loveseats
Other
Sectionals
Sets
Sofa Beds, Sleeper Sofas
Sofas
Trunks
Office
Home Decor
Miscellaneous
Patio & Grilling
Subject matter is generally confined to non-fiction, and is usually visually-oriented. Pages consist mainly of photographs and illustrations, accompanied by captions and small blocks of text, as opposed to long prose. Most tend to be biographies or fall into the genres of history, art, nature, photography, or entertainment.
David R. Brower is sometimes credited with inventing the "modern coffee table book". While serving as executive director of the Sierra Club, he had the idea for a series of books that combined nature photography and writings on nature, with, as he put it, "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 such book, "This is the American Earth", with photographs by Ansel Adams and others and text by Nancy Newhall, was published in 1960; the series became known as the "Exhibit Format" series, with 20 titles eventually published.
In popular culture
In the 1980s, British comedy duo Smith and Jones released The lavishly-tooled Smith and Jones Coffee Table Book - its cover was designed to look as if the book could double as a coffee table.;
In the fifth season (1993–1994) of the American sitcom Seinfeld, there was a story arc involving Kramer wanting to write a coffee table book about coffee tables. His idea was for the coffee table book to have legs built into the back cover and cupholders built into the front cover, so the book itself could be turned into a coffee table.;
There is a 2003 coffee table book about coffee tables called The Coffee Table, Coffee Table Book by Alexander Payne.;
Read more at Wikipedia.org
|
|