Thanks for visiting my blog. :)

pelf: No prob ;)

Oh, read your comment to your sis. OMG. I swear I laughed my head off! Haha

pelf: Err.. What was so funny leh?

Hi Pelf,

This may turn out to be a long-ass diatribe, so my apologies first. Coffee table books (over here) are literally those hard-cover, giant sized books that are on coffee tables and on shelves in living rooms/home office rooms/home study rooms that are meant to look pretty for deco purposes with little depth of content. Though Josh’s idea of making the book into a shape of a penyu is rather interesting, coffee table books are usually all the same size (because uniformity for deco purposes is better ma…).

As for the content, it is generally true that coffee table books are just loaded with pictures, pictures and more pictures with short, descriptive (sometimes factual) passages about the pictures – especially with books that are centered around art or an artist. Coffee table books are meant for perusing and not studying but I’ve seen a few where the books become a huge history lesson filled with words from page to page.

IMO, coffee table books are like childrens’ learning picture books but for adults. Large pictures. Small font. Informative, but not overloaded. The first few pages should be mostly text, being a description of your subject, like an Introduction, etc. The better half of the book should be a little lighter on text. Having quaint anecdotes or facts (like a “Did You Know….?” box) about turtles on each page might be a good idea.

I could be totally way off course though ^_^.

There are a couple good photos on Flickr (see here.) that you could probably get for cheap, or even for free. Same goes for free image sites (see here). Otherwise, good luck! It sounds like a really good opportunity, and a good challenge to work with!

Much love.

pelf: WOW. The “Did you know” box idea sounds good to me, thanks heaps ;) You’ve got me into perspective now :)

pelf: AARGHH! The Spam catcher!! < -- or whatever you call it.

Today, almost all books are judged by its covers – because there are so many of them and its littered with titles that titillate in a background of attractive colours. So, my suggestion is do a the whole book in a shape of a PENYU. Make the paper cover, in penyu-shell like colours and cut the book in an odd shape (PENYU) and You got a winner!

U can credit me then if you want.

pelf: Oh sure, thanks for the info ;)