How To Start Your Coffee Table Book Collection

After a summer of gallivanting, September brings with it the autumnal urge to nest and reset. Our attention returns to our homes, and it’s time to breathe new life into our living spaces and create reasons to stay in. (If you’d like a daily reason to stay in delivered straight to your inbox, you should sign up for our Staying In, Going Out newsletter.) If your coffee table is looking a little sparse without the summer debris of sunhats and beach-reads, and you need a little help kick-starting your coffee table book collection, the timing couldn’t be better. TASCHEN’s biannual sale launches tomorrow, and we asked one of the publisher’s editors to pick her ultimate book to invest in. We’ve picked our favourites, too, so read on for some cut-price bookspiration. 

Cologne-born publisher TASCHEN has spent four decades making books that belong on display as much as on a shelf; oversized, beautifully printed keep-forever tomes that are highly giftable, if you can bear to part from them. Their biannual sale brings up to 75 per cent off across art, fashion, photography, architecture, design and travel, so if you’re looking to start your coffee table collection, now is the time. 

Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism

Where To Begin?

TASCHEN Editor Nora Dohrmann names her all-time favourite coffee table book as Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism by Julia Watson – a title that makes the point beautifully about what the format can do at its best. She says: ‘The level of detail with which it describes ancient technologies is eye-opening. Through text, photos, and illustrations, we learn about infrastructures that are thousands of years old and still in use – such as growing bridges that withstand the force of the monsoonal rains, swimming villages, and irrigation systems in rough terrain. This book offers a glimpse into the past and future of technology and design at the same time.’ This is the beauty of a great coffee table book; it transports you to other times and places without the need to leave your sofa – which is ideal for nesting season. 

The Photography Edit 

If art and photography is more your vibe than design, we’ve selected five titles that will be hitting the sale tomorrow that fit the bill if you want the chicest coffee table in town. 

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is the most logical starting point for anyone new to photography books. Five decades of cultural portraiture – John Lennon, Susan Sontag, the Queen – collected in a single volume that doubles as a document of the 20th century. 

Peter Lindbergh: Untold Stories

Peter Lindbergh: Untold Stories is one of the most beautiful photography books from this household name. Lindbergh changed fashion photography by stripping it back and championing natural light, minimal make-up and real people. The book is an extension of that philosophy and a beautiful addition to any coffee table.

David LaChapelle: Lost & Found

David LaChapelle: Lost & Found swings in the opposite direction: maximalist, surreal and wildly colourful. It’s the perfect counterpoint to Lindbergh on your shelf.

Andy Warhol & Friends by Shapiro

Andy Warhol & Friends by Shapiro is a social history art book featuring Factory portraits, celebrity culture and the downtown New York scene that shaped everything that came after it.

Ellen von Unwerth: Heimat

Ellen von Unwerth: Heimat rounds out the edit with something warmer and more playful if you want a statement piece on your coffee table that will raise eyebrows. Von Unwerth’s photography has a lightness that sets it apart from her contemporaries.

Give Yourself Range 

Our top tip for starting your coffee table book collection? One mistake that people make is buying books that all look the same or have the same vibe. The strongest collections have a proper range; place a photography monograph next to a cookery tome, next to something completely unexpected, like Lo-TEK. Start with what you love, buy one thing that challenges you, and build from there. 

The TASCHEN sale runs 3 to 6 September at taschen.com and in stores worldwide. TASCHEN London is at 12 Duke of York Square, SW3 4LY. Early in-store shopping on 2 September only.