Awesome Books

If building an army of 59-foot tall, life-sized robots is out of your price range, Paper Robots is a suitable alternative: it includes 14 robot templates that can be built using rubber bands.

The creators of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies take a hacksaw to another Jane Austen classic with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters; this time, with lobsters and sea serpents.

PSFK’s Snapshot Brooklyn is a 60-page book that serves as a quirky insider’s guide to NYC’s most populous borough, from canoe tours through factory ruins to underground supper clubs.

Celebrating the July 20, 1969 moon landings’ 40th anniversary, Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts includes 21 astronauts’ favorite photos and a foreword by Stephen Hawking.

These Star Wars Trash Compactor Bookends are an epic win for learned sci-fi geeks; due out April 2010, they split Han and Leia on one side with Luke and Chewie on the other.

It’s already outdated, but Rob Matthews’ Wikipedia Book is a 5,000 page tome that includes Wikipedia’s 2,500+ featured articles; we’re gonna bet that editing is disabled on this one.

Star Wars: The Essential Atlas is the first book that maps the entire Star Wars Galaxy, perfect for the schemes of future Sith Lords; it covers the political regions, planets and Galactic History.

Improv Everywhere’s pranks are pretty well-known, so we’re happy to hear they now have a book out: Causing a Scene is a behind-the-scenes look at their pranks over the past 8 years.

With over 1,000 pages, the Walking Dead Compendium is a braaaainfest like none other; it collects issues #1-#48 of Robert Kirkman’s George Romero-inspired Walking Dead comics.

Mix Shake Stir is a refreshingly accessible book of cocktail recipes from 9 NYC restaurants; easy instructions and mouth-watering closeups are mixed in with tips from bartenders.

We could probably build one of Nils Moormann’s Easy Readers for cheap, but props to him for the ingenious idea: it’s a combination bookshelf and bench with wheel for easy moving.

Shatner Quake tops the list for ridiculous sci-fi novels: in it, every William Shatner character gets sucked into our world to do battle with a Bruce Campbell terrorist cult. No, seriously.

Youth are usually deaf to anyone over 65, but Wisdom (book, site) interviews luminaries anyone would be remiss to ignore, including Nelson Mandela, Clint Eastwood, and Jane Goodall.

We’ve got zombie stormtroopers, card games, and weaponry, so why not Zombie Haiku? The undead reveal their penchant for the good ol’ 5-7-5; most poetic? “BRAINS”, 17 times in a row.

If you liked yesterday’s Bacon Lance of Death, you’ll want to check out Mad Science; it’s by Theo Gray, the same guy behind the Bacon Lance, and includes 52 extreme experiments.

Now available for preorder: LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary is filled with hundreds of photos of minifigs, spaceships, weapons, and even that drool-inducing Death Star.

We’re leery of movie tie-ins, but Star Trek: Countdown helps to establish continuity with the last Trek movie (Nemesis); all four comics are combined in this trade paperback edition.

Too bad it’s only available in Japan: Sneaker Tokyo is a treasure trove of info on the past, present and future of Tokyo sneaker culture; it’s packed with interviews, images and previews.

Targeted at 20-35 year olds, Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich has over sixty 5-star reviews and offers practical personal finance tips for banking, saving, budgeting and investing.

It was “bound” to happen sooner or later: blogger and literary buff James Bridle has self-published My Life in Tweets, a hardcover book with 4100 Twitter posts from 2007 to 2009.

It won’t help you pick up chicks, but The Geek’s Guide to World Domination will elevate you to the highest echelons of geekdom; it teaches everything from building lasers to cloning pets.

Emergency and Survivor’s Club teach you how to survive, but Forbidden Knowledge takes the opposite tack: it teaches you how to start riots, make crop circles and brew moonshine.

Whereas Emergency gives survival tips, The Survivors Club delves into the psychological profiles of actual survivors; you’ll also be able to get your own Survivor Profile and Survivor IQ.

With all the economic uncertainty swirling about, Neil Strauss’ Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life may just do that; it’s packed with survival tips for a post-apocalyptic future.

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out is a collection of Adam Koford’s LOLcats-meets-early 20th century American comics mashup; it includes an intro by John Hodgman of I’m A PC fame.

Now available: Out of Captivity is the harrowing tale of three American civilian contractors captured by FARC and held hostage in the Colombian jungles from 2003 to 2008.