The Best Coffee Table Books of All Time

For the movie-lover, this is a hilarious and visually appealing book about movies! Each of the thirty chapters looks at a different movie, asks a different question about that movie, then explores the answer. The format is engaging (imagine Mike Myers from the Halloween franchise giving a press conference) and richly illustrated, but also so relaxed that you can jump around and read it in bite-sized pieces, then display the book when your movie night guests come over!

For the outdoors and National Parks lovers, definitely snag this gorgeous edition of some of Ansel Adams's most famous photographs of Yosemite National Park, taken in the late 1950s. Adams took these photos with the goal of creating affordable prints that tourists could purchase and take home with them, hoping that the photographs would inspire tourists to care about the natural wonders in Yosemite and protect the land. This collection includes a wide range of photographs, which Adams selected before his death and created this book as a beautiful ode to nature and environmental activism.

Do you dream of running away to a little cabin in the woods? If the answer is yes, then you need this book. Originally created by friends who have a cabin in upstate New York, the seed of this book began as a scrapbook of cabin inspiration and expanded into a website and then a popular Tumblr with millions of followers. This coffee table book goes deeper to include interior and exterior photographs of some amazing cabins, plus information about how to set up a cabin, background on the architecture, and more!

If you love old Hollywood, this is a fascinating book full of interesting information about the pre-code era, when Hollywood was expanding rapidly and studios, producers, and writers were toeing the line of what censors in America would allow. The book shines a light on twenty-two boundary-pushing films that led to the Code of 1934 and is accompanied with hundreds of never-before-seen photos from that age, including images of some of the most iconic stars from the time.

This stunning book looks at the history of Black people in American cinema, from the white actors in blackface in the silent film era all the way up to the groundbreaking release of Black Panther. This book looks at some of the influential actors of the early years--Bojangles Robinson, Hattie McDaniels, Dorothy Dandridge, and Sidney Poitier. Things began to shift with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the book brings readers into the era of Ava DuVernay and Moonlight. Full of compelling images, this is a great coffee table book about film history.

This gorgeous, artistic coffee table book celebrates the movement of dance, with photographs of dancers from such companies as American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and more! The photographs reveal dancers in many beautiful and gravity-defying poses, accompanied by words of inspiration from the dancers, choreographers, and stage directors behind the movements. Brimming with energy, this book commemorates the artistry and power in dance.

If you're a stargazer, you need this gorgeous book about the majesty and beauty of the night sky! This book has gorgeous images of 88 constellations and includes information about their position, their discovery, and the lore surrounding the constellations. The book also includes beautiful star maps that help readers find these constellations, lending to a deeper appreciation of the beauty of the stars.

Following the massive success of the Broadway show Hamilton, creator Lin-Manual Miranda and Jeremy McCarter have put together this gorgeous coffee table book that goes deeper into Miranda's creative process writing and staging Hamilton, but also takes a look at the historical research that went into the musical. This book also contains all of the lyrics for the famous music, with Miranda's funny and insightful footnotes. This is the perfect gift for the ultimate Hamilton fan!