A coffee table novel?
November 17, 2017 4:03 AM Subscribe
I just woke up from a dream in which I was sitting in a used bookstore, absorbed in a novel that was printed like a coffee table art book - a big heavy hardback in which more than half the pages were printed with beautiful reproductions of colorful 19th through 21st century paintings; but instead of text about the paintings, the text was a contemporary novel. Has a book like that ever really existed?
In the past month or so, I've run across maybe a half-dozen mentions of Above the Timberline. The paintings aren't a match, but if you follow SF/F reviews, I could see them prompting a dream about a coffee table novel.
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:23 AM on November 17, 2017
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:23 AM on November 17, 2017
Oh, so this is interesting. I remembered a version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the 90s that matches your description.
I went Googling to find images from it, and instead, I found what appears to be a newer illustrated version of Hitchhiker. And it looks like the company that made it (Folio Society) has done lots of books like this.
posted by roll truck roll at 6:27 AM on November 17, 2017
I went Googling to find images from it, and instead, I found what appears to be a newer illustrated version of Hitchhiker. And it looks like the company that made it (Folio Society) has done lots of books like this.
posted by roll truck roll at 6:27 AM on November 17, 2017
The books aren't quite coffee-table-sized, but your description makes me think of the Griffin and Sabine series.
posted by ferret branca at 9:09 AM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ferret branca at 9:09 AM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
I recall seeing (a big section of) books for the visually challenged in a library in my youth; they're coffee table sized with large print, but were otherwise normal novels.
posted by porpoise at 10:47 AM on November 17, 2017
posted by porpoise at 10:47 AM on November 17, 2017
Response by poster: This dream book wasn't a novel with commissioned illustrations like Above the Timberline or Hitchhiker's Guide - both of which look amazing, by the way - but a novel interspersed with existing paintings. So, I hate to say it, much more like The Da Vinci Code than the others.
(It's entirely imaginary, but I couldn't help doing some google image searches to try to find paintings that resembled the ones in the book. Here's one.)
posted by moonmilk at 4:52 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
(It's entirely imaginary, but I couldn't help doing some google image searches to try to find paintings that resembled the ones in the book. Here's one.)
posted by moonmilk at 4:52 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:43 AM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]