Does anyone actually collect "coffee table" books, as opposed to merely accumulating them?
Most academic libraries do not collect such books, though there are exceptions (which we shall deal with shortly). Public libraries also do not generally seek out such books, though they may accept donations of such books if there is a great demand for them. But what about folks building private libraries...?
As ODLIS defines the term, coffee table books are
...expensive book[s] on a popular subject, usually oversize and lavishly illustrated, with the text clearly subordinate to the illustrations. Designed primarily for display and casual browsing rather than cover-to-cover reading, coffee table books are often marketed on the decorative appeal of their colorful dust jackets. In trade bookstores, they may be sold at a deep discount, especially at Christmas to attract gift buyers.
Although the concept of a book intended primarily for display rather than perusal can be traced back to at least Montaigne's 1580 essay Upon Some Verses of Virgil, the coffee table book as we know it today is generally credited to the great American environmentalist David R. Brower. As Executive Director of the Sierra Club he sought to publish books big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. For Brower, this meant that [t]he eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance.
The first of Brower's "Exhibit Format" books (there eventually would be 20 such titles) was published in 1960:
Coffee table books are big ... really big! They also are expensive. That is why most institutional libraries do not collect such books. Have you ever encountered an institutional library that has enough shelf space and enough money to buy whatever it likes...?!
Many private book collectors avoid such books for the same reasons. And yet....
Exceptions are made. Exceptions are made for the works of eminent photographers and other artists....
...and exceptions routinely are made for subjects about which few other books have been written:
The great mass of such books, though, get heavily discounted and often are bought as remainders:
Interestingly enough, the ultimate coffee table book probably is that developed by the fictional character Cosmo Kramer over several episodes of the 5th season of the long-running sitcom Seinfeld. Kramer's Coffee Table Book of Coffee Tables (below left via Regis & Kathie Lee) came with folding legs built into the lower cover, so when the legs were extended the book itself served as a coffee table. In 2003, Black Dog published just such a book (sans the legs), though nowhere in the book is any credit given to the Seinfeld episodes that most likely inspired the book (below right)....
Recent Comments