Awesome Books

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.”

Mike Warren entertains and educates with his YouTube channel Cut in Half, where he slices open everyday objects with a waterjet cutter so we can see what’s inside. He’s releasing a book containing photos of dozens of his work, along with text that explains the object’s parts.

Stefan Bogner and Ben Winter’s Cars & Curves: A Tribute to 70 Years of Porsche features pictures of awesome sports cars, from the 906 to the Carrera GT, each in their natural environment. The beautiful photos are punctuated by essays about each featured car.

The LEGO Book charts the history of the famed toy company as well as its ever growing line of products. The New Edition adds LEGO’s latest sets, including the ones from LEGO Ideas. It also comes with an exclusive 2×4 LEGO brick. Drops 10/2/18.

Learn how to make Nuka-Cola, BlamCo Mac & Cheese, Deathclaw Steak and more with the Fallout: The Vault Dweller’s Official Cookbook. This hardcover book contains dozens of recipes based on or inspired by the food from the video game series. Drops 10/23/18.

(PG-13: Language) Comedian and artist Dominic Moschitti aka Paperback Paradise peppers Instagram with hilarious edits of book covers from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. He sells some of the covers as packs of postcards on his website.

In 2018, you keep your appointments in your smartphone. In 2019, you’ll keep the really important ones in your F*cking Brilliant 12-Month Planner book. This cheeky organizer features stylish calligraphy, a gold foil stamped cover, monthly tabs, and plenty of swearing.

The Sega Arcade: Pop-Up History is a pop-up book that celebrates the work of game designer Yu Suzuki. It includes pop-up models of the arcade machines for Hang-On, Space Harrier, OutRun, ThunderBlade and After Burner along with their stories.

Zupagrafika’s cut-out model book lets you build your own cold and impersonal miniature city filled with the brutalist architecture of Central and Eastern Europe. Includes seven buildings from Serbia, Moldova, Russia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

Alex Bellos took learnings from his travels to Japan to create a series of more than 200 Sudoku-Kakoru-Futoshiki-style puzzles, including 20 completely new and original types of puzzles. The book is packed with challenges for even the most hardened puzzle junkie.

Ferrari gave premiere coffee table book publisher Taschen full access to its archives as well as those of some of its most avid collectors to create this 514-page masterpiece. The Art Edition comes in an engine-inspired aluminum display case designed by Marc Newson.

Publisher Assouline is coming out with a hardcover book about one of the world’s most popular toys. Hot Wheels features 300 pages and over 200 illustrations, covering the origins, evolution and even the future of the brand. Featuring a foreword by racer Mario Andretti.

Urban planner and game designer Konstantinos Dimopoulos is working on Virtual Cities, an atlas featuring the cities in video games. It will feature maps, analysis and more for over 40 video game cities, including Half-Life‘s City 17, GTA V‘s Los Santos and Silent Hill.

The latest in illustrator Steve McDonald’s series of intricate coloring books features an array of wondrous mechanical and solid state creations, including a space station, submarine, jumbo jet, and a pinball machine. Be sure to grab the matching set of colored pencils for gift giving.