Coffee Table Book

Coffee Table Book

Coffee Table Books
By Lori Prince Platinum Quality Author - Ezinearticles

Almost everyone has heard the term "coffee table books". These are books that are put on top of a coffee table for decor or to initiate conversation. Think about it: How many pieces of furniture create a whole category of books?

These books have the tendency to be over-sized and rather heavy. Since they basically stay on the table, its not necessary for them to be easily moveable. Usually, their subject is nonfiction, and most often they are related to art or a visual subject matter. Their pages generally are made up of mostly illustrations or photographs and small blocks of text, or captions instead of long sections of text. Because these types of books are aimed at those who might pick the book up for a casual read (or even just a look), the text inside is often more simplistic than some other books written on the subject. Because of this, the term itself can be used negatively to mean a book that presents a more casual approach to the subject.

David R. Brower is often credited for creating the modern "coffee table book". While he acted as the director of the Sierra Club, he developed an idea for a series of books that combined nature photographs and text 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 books was "This is the American Earth". It had photographs by Ansel Adams among others photographers with text by Nancy Newhall. This book was published in 1960 and the series was known as the "Exhibit Format" series. Twenty titles were published in the series.

These books have their own place in popular culture. In the 1980s, the Brit comedy team of Smith and Jones presented The lavishly-tooled Smith and Jones Coffee Table Book. It's cover was designed to appear as if it could be a coffee table. The fifth season of Seinfeld had an episode with Kramer attempting to write a coffee table book actually about coffee tables. The idea was for the book to have legs and coasters built into it, so the book itself could become a coffee table.

Coffee Table Book