Coffee Table Books, 91

Coffee entering Europe was in 1593 as a result of the the British and Dutch East Trading Companies. The Europeans as well as the colonized world had never experienced the caffeinated high of coffee and tea. It was delightful and they  immediately became hooked. With the infiltration of coffee into early European society, came accouterments. Coffee could not be simply served, there were coffee houses, coffee pots, coffee cups and saucers, as well as the the coffee table. Most of these items were unnecessary, although the added to the performativity of consuming coffee. The act of drinking coffee became a social status symbol. If you knew how to use the devices for drinking coffee then you were an astute member of the upper echelon. While luxuriating on a sofa or chaise lounge chair it is only natural to want a table at arm's length to place you coffee. And given the convenience, it also became customary to have a reading material readily available. 

A coffee table book says a lot about an individual; what their interests are, and what they want to convey to their guests upon entering their home. Now a coffee table book tends to be larger than you average book, much so that so that nobody would never carry it around. They are inundated with large colorful imagery and limited text and content. With a plethora of coffee table books on the market, it is only natural there would actual be one strictly devoted to coffee tables themselves, ironic no less. To bad there isn't one solely devoted to coffee table books. Humor also plays a heavy hand in the coffee table book market, such as Stoner Coffee Table Book, Scanwiches, Women Before 10AM, Cacas, and my favorite Stuck Up! 100 Objects Inserted and Ingested in Places They Shouldn't Be.

Trending is the coffee table made of coffee table books. It is simply stacks of books, sometimes with a piece of wood or glass atop. Although this defies accessibility to many of the books and thus defeats the purpose (readability) of books, there is plenty of surface space for coffee, tea, and cocktails.