coffee table book

English

Etymology

So called because it might be displayed on a coffee table in a person’s home.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/
• Hyphenation: cof‧fee ta‧ble book

Noun

coffee table book (plural coffee table books)

1. A large book, usually with lavish illustrations, typically displayed on a coffee table.
   • 1976, Robert Plant Armstrong, “The Qualities of a Book, the Wants of a Dissertation”, in Eleanor Harman, Ian Montagnes, editors, The Thesis and the Book, paperbound edition, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, published 2002, →ISBN, pages 19–20:

     Nonbooks are of several kinds; but their differences notwithstanding, they all share two common features: they tend to be written for market rather than for intellectual reasons, and they are all means rather than ends. [...] Of all nonbooks, the most conspicuous example is the ‘coffee-table book’. The latter usually find their market by virtue of their decorative assets rather than from any literary or intellectual merit, or for that matter – since such works are often art books – by significantly serving important aesthetic or historical purposes.

   • 1996 November, “Ebony Bookshelf”, in Lerone Bennett Jr., editor, Ebony, volume LII, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18B:

     The Family Book of Black America (Crown, $20), a photographic coffee table book, by Michael H. Cottman and Deborah Willis.

   • 2002, NAWCC Bulletin, volume 44, Columbus, Pa.: National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1:

     I am leery of coffee table books. They are often pretty but have little substance once you get under the surface.

   • 2003, “In a Timeless Wrap: The Sari is Serenaded as a Living Entity that Defines the Dreams of the Indian Woman”, in India Today, volume 28, New Delhi: Thomson Living Media India, →OCLC, page cxlix:

     Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller serenade the garment [the sari] in their remarkable coffee-table book The Sari. [...] Photographs build the warp and weft of coffee-table books. Words seldom rule and even if written by well-known writers, they have to take second place to the camera's five-colour dominance.

Alternative forms

• coffee-table book

Translations

Further reading

• coffee table book on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “coffee table book”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.