Awesome Books

Alex Bellos and Edmund Harris’ wonderful coloring book is designed for kids and adults who are fascinated with patterns, geometry, or mathematics. It’s packed with dozens of intricate and soothing designs to help keep your mind distracted from the day’s woes.

These books are the perfect gift for any Star Wars fan. Each one comes with a laser-cut and engraved 3D wood model of an iconic vehicle, spaceship, or droid. Display them as-is, or paint them to your liking. The accompanying books provide background details.

Previously available only in a now sold out limited run, Taschen is re-releasing Roy Thomas’ biographical art book about the late Stan Lee. The Stan Lee Story XXL contains lots of photographs, comic book art and facsimiles and features a foreword by the man himself.

2019 marks the 60th anniversary of the Mini. Voted the most second influential car of the 20th century (behind only the Ford Model T), the original Mini was in production from 1959 until 2000. Learn about its origins and more in this retrospective book by Giles Chapman.

“From what age can babies… fight to the death?” Justin Hook gathered a collection of more than 200 of the most amusing search engine autocomplete suggestions he could find. While you wait for the book to arrive this May, try a round or two of his Google Feud.

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America is the perfect reference book for identifying our flying friends (and enemies). It features 50 snarky descriptions of annoying, dumb, and stupid looking avians you might find in your backyard.

It might look like a stool, but this is actually a book. Designed by Mike Mak, Bookniture’s cardboard honeycomb structure can hold over a ton, and folds up into a book for storage when not in use. Measures 13.5″h x 14″ dia when in use, 13″h x 7″w x 1.5″d when folded.

Gestalten’s It’s a Gas!: The Allure of the Gas Station is a coffee table book dedicated to the “temples of mobility.” It charts the history of the gas station and features some of the most unique and interesting examples all over the world.

Apollo VII – XVII showcases the photography of the astronauts who were part of the Apollo missions. The book contains 225 photos in large print format. The Collector’s Edition also tackles the astronauts’ photography training and equipment.

Auto expert Basem Wasef’s latest book is packed with history lessons, technical details, and illustrations of some of the world’s greatest exotic cars, from the sexy Ferrari 250 GTO, to the ballsy 1980s Ferrari Testarossa, to the high-tech hybrid McLaren P1.

“Good design is as little design as possible.” The revised edition of legendary product designer Dieter Rams’ previously sold out book. In Less But Better, Rams talks about his “ideas, criteria and methods”, and how he came up with his now famous principles for good design.

Be an entertaining host or ice breaker with Laurence King’s Dangerous Experiments for After Dinner. It consists of 21 cards that will teach you how to perform funny or risky tricks, such as sabering a champagne bottle or hammering a needle through a coin.

(PG-13) The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons: A Semi-serious A-to-Z Archive contains almost 3,000 cartoons from over a century of publication. The illustrations are split into two volumes, 250 categories and 1,600 pages. Also in deluxe and as an ebook.

Taschen’s book Rocky: The Complete Films chronicles the making of the various Rocky movies, up until Creed. It features interviews, on-set photos and other archival material. The book also comes with a scan of Sylvester Stallone’s handwritten script for Rocky.

Evan Amos’ book The Game Console charts the evolution of video game hardware. It features full-color photographs of 86 consoles, including their inner components, starting with the Magnavox Odyssey and ending with the current generation (except the Switch).

Erin Lowry explains (in very relatable ways, and with true stories) how to avoid being a complete financial fool, avoid being mystified by money and be the master of your hunned dollar bills y’all, in her book Broke Millenial.

Do you aspire to someday make an awesome LEGO railway like this one? Holger Matthes’ book could be the place to start. The hardcover book features 248 pages packed with the history of LEGO trains, and instructions for building your own working LEGO railroad.

Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia covers the first 17 games in the series, from the original Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario 3D World. It contains information about major and minor characters, spinoff games and more. There’s also a limited edition.

Inspired by a design submitted by Grant Davis and Jason Allemann, this 859-piece LEGO kit lets builders create two different scenes inside the “pages” of a pop-up book, each based on a classic fairy tale – Little Red Riding Hood or Jack and the Beanstalk. Drops 11/1/18.

Gestalten’s The Current: New Wheels for the Post-Petrol Age looks at the history and evolution of electric motorcycles, bicycles, and everything in between. It showcases some of the best and most unique examples of this two-wheeled revolution.

Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North wants to be competent if he ever became a time traveler. So he wrote How to Invent Everything, a funny but informative history guide that will help time travelers rebuild civilization in case their journey goes awry.

Written by YouTuber Luke Goodman aka Out of Darts, The NERF Blaster Modification Guide is an unofficial handbook that has everything you need to know about modding NERF weapons, from the basics to more advanced processes such as 3D printing.

Taschen, George Lucas, and Lucasfilm present The Star Wars Archive, a series of books about the making of the movies. The 604 page Volume 1 covers Episodes IV to VI, with “script pages, production documents, concept art, storyboards, on-set photos, stills, and posters.”