Somewhere in-between the category of books and design items there are… the coffee table books!
A coffee table book is a large sized book which is usually placed on a table in order to decorate a space and also to entertain its visitors.
These books are not novels and normaly they consist of large-scale photographs followed by captions or small texts.
With an emphasis on aesthetics and photography, they are also a kind of a peculiar “keyhole” into the interests of the owner of the space that hosts each one of these books. Depending on the interests of the owner of a venue, he may invest in a coffee table book that has to do with the history of fashion, the highlights of photography, cinema, painting, architecture, design etc.
In contradiction with novels or simple books, coffee table books serve another purpose, as they are selected for aesthetic reasons. Thinking about buying them also involves the intention of placing them in a particular place in somebody’s house or office, usually for a large period of time.
We would say, with a slight exaggeration, that buying a coffee table book is an equivalent to a “beautiful commitment”.
If you want to start your own collection we recommend you the following: Lagerfeld: The Chanel Shows, Windows: At Tiffany & Co, Living in Morocco, My Name is Prince, Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue.
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