Curl up with a good drink and a book you don’t have to read (if you don’t want to).
The torpid vibe of the cooler months is beginning to set in. It feels later earlier, and the cosiness of warm socks and baggy fleeces go hand-in-hand with the feline-like desire to follow patches of sunlight as they snake their way around the room. Autumn isn’t a time to think too hard or read too many words. It’s a time to warm your soul with pretty pictures. So, put down the novel and pick up a coffee table book instead.
For this edition of Book Club, we’re bringing you five coffee table books and their ultimate drinking pals. From bubbles and bling to noughties nostalgia and more, these pairings are perfect for lazy days spent indoors. So, throw on your favourite tracksuit, find that sunny spot and curl up with a good drink and a book you don’t have to read (if you don’t want to).
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Pair: An ode to the egg and its favourite tablemate
Giver of life, hatcher of paradoxes, and breakfast of champions. There’s no denying that an egg is a beautiful thing (two even more so), so it only makes sense that it would find itself the subject of an aptly beautiful coffee table book. The Gourmand’s Egg. A Collection of Stories and Recipes is just that book.
Cataloguing essays, recipes, photography and artwork from names like Salvador Dali, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frida Kahlo and more, this feast for the eyes is best devoured over Sunday brunch, Bloody Mary in hand. Try this Sherry Bloody Mary from our favourite gourmand, Julia Busuttil Nishimura. A lick of Álvaro Domenq Fina La Janda sherry amps up the savoury and the spice. Perfect for a wintery brunch at home.
Pair: Bubbles and bling
Some things, it would seem, were simply made for each other. Love and marriage… horse and carriage… bubbles and bling. Exploring hip-hop’s enduring fascination with big, bombastic jewellery, Ice Cold. A Hip-Hop Jewelry History takes us on a 40-year journey through one of music’s most shimmering curiosities. Featuring essays from the likes of Slick Rick and A$AP Ferg – and dazzling photography from David LaChapelle, Janette Beckman and more – author Vikki Tobak weaves together a captivating story of identity, pride and self-expression.
Naturally, there’s no better pairing for this ice-cold book than ice-cold Champagne. Our pick? AR Lenoble Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs. Just like hip-hop’s favourite jewellery, this Champagne is the antithesis of off-the-rack. Produced in the village of Chouilly by an independent, family-run house, it’s a little bit of luxe for those in the know.
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Pair: Lifestyle porn and a classic red
Is it a cliché to say this pairing is cheaper than a ticket to Tuscany? Probably. Does it matter? Absolutely not. That’s the thing about coffee table books. They have the power to transport you to where you’d rather be. After all, a picture says a thousand words, right? We’ll stop, but in the case of Living In Tuscany, author Barbara Stoeltie has curated a transportive collection of this famous wine region’s most beautiful homes.
Peek inside the villas, farmhouses and palazzos of the locals lucky enough to call Tuscany home. Experience the same vivid vistas from the perspectives of Michelangelo and Gemma Donati (the wife of 13th century poet, Dante, who spent her exile at the Villa Villoresi). And crucially, taste the fruits of those rolling hillsides with a glass of Castello Di Albola Chianti Classico. This award-winning drop is about as Tuscan as it gets. Fruity, fresh and deeply intense, it’s one of the best-value Chiantis going. Again, considerably cheaper than a plane ticket.
Pair: Noughties nostalgia and the OG premix
It’s strange to think that enough time has passed that we can finally look back on the noughties with nostalgia instead of cringe. But it has, and the era’s preeminent party photographer Mark Hunter has just the thing for it. His latest book, The Cobrasnake: Y2Ks Archive, paints a wild portrait of the decade’s biggest pop icons partying their way through New York and Los Angeles.
Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan and Steve Aoki are all there in their neon-tinged glory. A stunning retrospective of – I can’t believe I’m saying this – a more innocent time, it’s difficult to imagine a body of work like this being possible in today’s Instagram-curated culture. Throw on Paris Hilton’s ‘Stars Are Blind’, crack open the 2000s’ premix of choice (Vodka Cruiser Black Guava – duh!), and pore over hundreds of photos of celebs at their best – and worst.
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Pair: Wes Anderson deja vu and classic amaro
Some things are unmistakably Wes Anderson. Yellow Futura, painstaking symmetry, Bill Murray. But some things are accidentally Wes Anderson, too. Exploring the sites where life seemingly imitates art, it’s these little ‘accidents’ that Wally Koval set out to capture in putting together Accidentally Wes Anderson. Born from a subreddit of the same name, this visual adventure through places we swear we’ve seen on the silver screen (but haven’t) is an essential addition to every Wes Anderson fan’s coffee table.
An icon of the Italian Futurism design movement, Campari is somewhere between unmistakably and accidentally Wes Anderson, and it even features in Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. We can’t think of a better bev for this book, but mind your manners when asking for one. Bill Murray’s “Hey intern, get me a Campari” is a little too Wes Anderson for real life. On the rocks? You bet.
