Awesome Books

Do you know how you can improve any item? Give it a backside. Brian Cook’s literally cheeky book Butts on Things is loaded with more than 200 illustrations of objects bestowed with a fresh pair of buns. From tacos to ice cream to a cup of coffee, everything looks better with buttocks and a buttcrack.

An essential reference guide for setting up your own blacksmith workshop and working with metal. The first half of author Nicholas Wicks’ book covers shop safety, equipment, and techniques, while the second half offers 55 simple projects like tools, hardware, utensils, and decorative objects you can create.

Are you feeling stressed out? Perhaps you could use a little light reading material to help ease your tension. This parody kid’s book is filled with sensory pleasures like the fur on a soft puppy dog, a cozy warm blanket… and swearing like a truck driver.

Puebco’s library of weathered and tattered books look completely realistic, but they’re actually secret storage boxes. To make their contents even less appealing to would-be thieves, they come in such fascinating titles as “3208 Industrial Engine Parts Book” and “Rapid Identification (Spot Testing) of Some Metals and Alloys.”

Star Wars fans can dive deep into three iconic spacecraft with these Haynes Owners Workshop Manuals. The books delve into the design, engineering, and inner workings of the Millennium Falcon, X-Wing Fighter, and TIE Fighter. There’s also a Death Star manual.

Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett presents a 288-page coffee table book filled with new interpretations of 2D, Murdoc, Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs, by 40 fellow artists and friends like Craig McCracken, Jack Black, and Robert Smith. Printed and bound with luxury art paper in Verona, Italy. Pre-orders ship starting 4.2022.

A comprehensive history of one of video gaming’s greatest icons, Pac-Man. This 340-page hardcover book is packed with concept designs, archival imagery, and stories from the game’s designers, developers, and marketers. The Collector’s Edition includes a slipcase, a Pac-Man Fever record, and an arcade token.

Cursing is f**king charming when it’s cross-stitched or daintily embroidered. Julie Jackson, OG of the Subversive Cross Stitch movement, continues the snarky DIY trend with Super Subversive Cross Stitch, 50 easy-to-follow patterns including: Not today, Satan; Let the good times be gin; What fresh hell is this? and more.

Part of DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The Astronomy Book is a great way to learn about a typically dense subject. The book explores the history of astronomy, space exploration, and the concepts surrounding astrophysics in terms that anyone can understand.

This series of reference books helps electricians, contractors, students, and DIYers navigate the complexities of working with electricity, and within National Electrical Code (NEC) rules. One book covers general electricity topics, and others include residential wiring, conduit bending, and motors and controls.

Designers, inventors, and engineers frequently patent their ideas so they can’t be freely copied. Author Thomas Rinaldi’s fascinating coffee table book catalogs 1000 original patent drawings from iconic and ubiquitous objects such as furniture, lamps, appliances, and electronics.

Whether you’re a DIYer or a construction pro, understanding math and geometry is critical. DEWALT’s reference guide includes 42 pages of useful equations and rules which will help you measure twice and cut once. Made from durable, toolbox-friendly materials with a spiral-bound edge. Also available for plumbing and wiring.

Philippines-based illustrator Kerby Rosanes presents a wonderful adult coloring book, packed with images of creatures intertwined with fantastical settings. The 96-page paperback offers weeks and weeks of coloring challenge with its intricately-detailed imagery.

Puzzle master Alex Bellos’ book is filled with 100 perplexing lexical puzzles that are guaranteed to give your brain a workout. Challenges include pattern identification, decoding hieroglyphics, and ciphers not just in English, but in other languages both real and imaginary.

This collectible book set offers an in-depth look behind the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry were given unprecedented access at Marvel Studios, filling two volumes with over 500 production photos, and 200 interviews with the staff, cast, and crew for all 23 movies in The Infinity Saga.

This thick, but still pocketable reference book has more than 700 pages chock full of useful charts, tables, and information for carpenters, engineers, handymen, and anyone else who builds, makes, or maintains things. It’s not an instructional book, but it’s great for looking up figures, equations, and conversions.

It’s time to overdecorate with pumpkins, autumn leaves, and manic cursing. Based on a McSweeney’s essay by Colin Nissan, It’s Decorative Gourd Season, MFers features stock photos illustrating the narrator’s descent into depression as his “perfect f**ing seasonal masterpiece” becomes a “perfect f**ing vermin condo.”

Nathan Myhrvold and his team expand their fantastic Modernist Cuisine series with a 3-volume encyclopedia all about pizza. The books break down the history of pizza, ingredients and techniques, and include more than 1000 recipes and 3700 photos of creative and delicious pizzas inspired by pizzerias around the globe.

Every comic book fan should have Marvel Greatest Comics: 100 Comics that Built a Universe on their bookshelf. The 256-page retrospective looks back at some of the most important and influential comics ever created, from the premiere of the Human Torch to forming the Avengers to modern characters like Squirrel Girl.

Thomas Pavitte’s clever illustrations offer a unique spin on adult coloring books. Each image is hidden within a pair of concentric spirals, which only reveals itself as you fill in the lines. Use two colors to create a duotone. Choose from music icons, cities, or animals.

Maze expert Sean C. Jackson created 30 intricate mazes for fellow Star Wars fans to enjoy. Locations include the forests of Endor, Jabba’s Palace, the rocky cliffs of Ahch-To, and the corridors of the Death Star. In addition to winding your way through the mazes, each illustration contains a Where’s Waldo-style challenge.

Chronicle’s coffee table art book celebrates the past, present, and future of Polaroid instant photography. In addition to more than 200 creative images captured by contemporary artists, the book revisits the origins and evolution of the format, along with an index of Polaroid cameras which still can be found today.

Three centuries before Pantone colors, artist A. Boogert meticulously cataloged hundreds of paint pigments. The Galobart Books is offering a limited run of this fascinating piece of design history. Each book comes in a slipcase with a numbered certificate, 10 frameable prints, and a study guide. View the original book here.