The Bookstorian’s Coffee Table Books Recommendations
Books for — not about — coffee tables
And finally, a few coffee table books. Frankly, I much prefer Darjeeling to coffee, but there’s no debating that oversized tomes are always a delight in one’s home.
My Window
In a clever twist on mixed media, David Hockney’s My Window features 120 of the painter’s beautiful iPhone and iPad drawings, each of them examining the world in front of and beyond the casements of his English home.
Steven Klein
Two other titles that caught my eye (the one with the monocle) are from a pair of photographers with polar opposite milieus. Steven Klein’s eponymous title is a gorgeous tour of his decades-long career, filled to the brim with risqué, sumptuous shots of celebrities and high fashion, every image more slickly produced than the next.
The Cobrasnake: Y2Ks Archive
Conversely, there is no production value to speak of in Mark Hunter’s photos, and that is precisely the appeal. The Cobrasnake: Y2Ks Archive is a collection from his time chronicling the nocturnal activities of urban hipsters in the first years of this century. The shots are so stripped down and visceral that even I — whose olfactory system seems permanently infused with the dusty, musty scent of my library — can almost smell the sweat, cheap beer and herbal fragrances in the dingy dives he visits.
