Books12 Best Coffee Table Books Nerds Will Love

12 Best Coffee Table Books Nerds Will Love

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The coffee table book is probably a more important part of home decor than you might realize.  You should start thinking about coffee table books as the icing on the cake or the cherry on top of your sundae. You’re using your living room to proudly display something that’s a part of you in a way that might draw the interest of others.

Before smartphones took over our lives, coffee table books were the only thing we had to ignore each other during our everyday conversations. The nerdy coffee table books in the list below are some of the coolest additions to your collection of cool stuff, and they’ll be sure to amuse your guests.

Find the best coffee table books for nerds below:

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Author: Randall Munroe

You might have heard the name Randall Munroe in your travels, as he’s the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd. He’s also the creator behind the hilarious and informative What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. The book answers ridiculous questions like how fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live and if there were a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? It’s filled with comedic gold that will amuse you and your guests.

Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Weapons & Technology

Author: W. Haden Blackman

ThinkGeek is well known for their awesome products, and one of the cool things to buy from them is Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Weapons & Technology. It’s an inside look into all of the weapons and technology of the Star Wars universe, featuring profiles of over 100 weapons and 100 other cool gadgets. It’s one of the best gifts for nerds, too, as everyone loves Star Wars. See more books from ThinkGeek here.

The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

Author: George R. R. Martin

More Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire is highly encouraged. This is one of the best coffee table books available, as it collects the accumulated knowledge, scholarly speculation, and inherited folk tales of maesters and septons, maegi and singers. It’s beautifully illustrated, including full-color artwork and maps, fully family trees for Houses Stark, Lannister and Targaryen, and contains 100% all-new material.

Vintage Toys Book

Toys have evolved. Yes, that’s obvious, but where did they evolve from? Looking at today’s newest toys, the trend seems to be to stick a small microchip in them, let them talk to your children, and that’s how kids play nowadays. But years ago, it was more about imagination — what could YOU make your toys do? So, let’s take a minute to celebrate great vintage toys with the Vintage Toys book by Alessandra Sardo.

This glorious coffee table book is filled with your childhood memories, including board games, toys, robots, action figures and more. Each page contains brilliant photographs of classic toys with insightful text, making it the ultimate zeitgeist for toys spanning from the earliest game to more recent classic toys. It’s filled with profiles of vintage wooden toys, space toys, and the like. They aren’t only toys from America, either, as it has classics from other countries like the Game & Watch from Japan, Memory from Germany, and the Smurfs (originally from Belgium). The book makes the perfect addition to your living room, and it’ll undoubtedly strike up many conversations. So, if you’re interested in the history of toys and games, check it out.

Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe

Author: Tim Leong

Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe is an impressive collection of pie charts, bar graphs, timelines, scatter plots and more revolving around comic books. It includes a colorful breakdown of the DC Comics reader demographic, a witty Venn diagram of superhero comic tropes, a scatter graph of the politics of good vs. evil, and other great visual guides.

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar

Author: Sharon Eliza Nichols

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar is a collection of egregious errors, disconcerting bloopers and other linguistic slip-ups. If you’ve ever been tempted to whip out your pen and add in or cross out apostrophes or fix misspellings, this is the coffee table book for you.

Marvel Comics: 75 Years of Cover Art

Author: DK

Marvel Comics: 75 Years of Cover Art is one of the many cool coffee table books for comic book fans. It brings together an unforgettable gallery of the most iconic and memorable covers along with never-before-seen concept art from all over the world. It features covers from The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Avengers and more of the comics that were brought to life by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

Movie Quotes for All Occasions

Author: James Scheibli

The Wes Anderson Collection

Author: Matt Zoller Seitz

If you’re a lover of Rushmore, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Wes Anderson Collection is a brilliant coffee table book which features previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photos, artwork, and ephemera revolving around the director and his movies.

Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present

Author: Dan Mazur

Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present is a magical look into the history of comics from around the world. It’s richly illustrated and covers an extraordinary scope, delving into the influential British scene, the American mainstream, manga, and more. It is one of the best nerdy gifts for comic book lovers.

The World of the Witcher

Author: CD Projekt Red

If it weren’t for Batman: Arkham Knight coming out just a month later, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt would likely have gotten much more attention. In our opinion, it’s one of the best RPGs to date, and should be included among the game of the year talks later this year. The World of the Witcher was released by CD Projekt Red at the same time as The Witcher 3, and this book is just as gorgeous as the game itself. The book allows you to dive deep into the world of monster hunters, giving you simply more information about the game’s world. It includes in-depth knowledge about the locales and the deadly beasts that inhabit them, as well as the badass weapons contained in the game. If you’ve played Wild Hunt, The World of the Witcher is a great addition to your living room.

The World Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos From Bookworms Worldwide

Author: Eva Talmadge

If you frequently find yourself looking for new tattoo ideas, check out this collection of some truly awesome literary tattoos from around the world. The World Made Flesh is an awe-inspiring collection that’s beautifully put together. It covers a vast array of books and book genres, with impressive tattoos that will surely have you looking to get some new ink.

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Bobby Bernstein
Bobby is the Co-Owner of Nerd Much?. He's the former Games Editor and current Shopping Editor at Heavy.com, former Editor in Chief of Den of Geek, and former bylines at HiConsumption, Slickdeals, Gamedeveloper.com, and more! He is also on Opencritic. He has been writing about nerdy stuff on the web for over 10 years. The best way to reach him is on Twitter.

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