The Best Coffee Table Books for Any Well-Appointed Home

The best coffee table books are fascinating literary creations—part objet d’art, part photographic ode, part textual reflection—that lend insight to the interests of the owners. Some people adorn their apartments with fashion chronologies, others choose artist anthologies, and some can’t stay away from pages upon pages of artfully arranged English gardens. While libraries and bookshelves are full of novels half-read or to-be-read-maybe-someday, these serve as personal statements.

There are a number of books that make perfect gifts for those looking to spruce up their space and pique their intellectual curiosity, especially as we all spend more time at home. Take the first published collection of Bill Cunningham’s street style photographs, or Taschen’s ode to Peter Beard and his work on the American and African continents. Meanwhile, if it’s pop culture you seek, look no further than My Name is Prince, a visual ode to the late, great singer’s career, or Rihanna’s book with Phaidon. 

For home decor aficionados, there’s an abundance of odes to the great interior minds of our generation. Miles Redd’s The Big Book of Chic brilliantly shows the AD100 designer’s wide-ranging projects, from a Wyoming Ranch to a French farmhouse—as well as the various influences, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Cecil Beaton, that have informed his intimate-yet-glamorous style. Meanwhile, Phaidon’s Inside: At Home with Great Interior Designers features Redd too, along with innovative living rooms of top tastemakers like Faye Toogood to Robin Standefer of Roman & Williams.

Fashion design fanatics can dive into Assouline’s definitive visual chronicle on the late Virgil Abloh’s tenure at Louis Vuitton, or Rizzoli’s ode to the shocking surrealist style of Elsa Schiaparelli. Another clothing-related classic? Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion, which looks back on the legacy of the iconic American designer. 

Below, shop the best coffee table books—from new releases to classic anthologies.