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hi it's Lindsay Diane from Dian
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decor.com in this video we're going to
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talk all about coffee table books now
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coffee table books are more than just
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decorative accents whether you're
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entertaining guests at home or your
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hosting a new acquaintance for the first
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time or you're just chilling out hanging
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on your sofa coffee table books have the
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curiosity discussion and really be an
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amazing Icebreaker tool when you're
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hosting guests at your home so let's
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talk about the reason why this is and
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then I'm going to dive into the four
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types of coffee table books that are the
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best to have out on display let's get
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started coffee table books are very
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versatile and this makes them an
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excellent item to use as Decor you can
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stack them you can lay them open they
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come in different sizes and colors you
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can take the jackets off of them and
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color coordinate a little stack of books
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as we talked about in um my video about
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five simple ways to decorate your home
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the stack is something that's very
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popular you have a small little stack of
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books and maybe you have a candle on top
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or a stack of books and a little
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figurine on top these are great for
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elevating vignettes or items that you
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want to put together on a vignette and
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of course they're great to actually flip
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through they're an interactive piece of
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Decor that a lot of people forget about
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that interactive piece of it is what
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makes them excellent for entertaining
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guests in your home odds are at some
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point in time while you're entertaining
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guests at home you may have to duck out
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for a minute you may be setting up a
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snack tray or you may have to go answer
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the door or you check on something in
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the oven maybe you're setting up uh some
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beverages to bring out to everyone at
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some point you usually have to step away
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and while this is fine when you have
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friends and family who frequent your
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home they're very comfortable in that
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space when you have new people it's a
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little bit harder for them to feel
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comfortable left alone in a space
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they've never been in before this is why
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people use coffee table books it's also
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why you see magazines at doctor's
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offices whenever you're in a waiting
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situation and you're in a place where
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you've never been before you tend to
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feel uncomfortable and so some
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familiarity of picking up that parade
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magaz a or the lifetime magazine it
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settles people down and it allows them
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to have something to do while they're
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waiting for further instruction
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essentially so when you're at home and
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you have those coffee table books out
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and open on your coffee table or maybe
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on a side table it gives your guests an
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opportunity to interact with something
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and busy themselves while they may be
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waiting on you and it gives them an
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opportunity to have some thoughts about
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the things that you have in your home or
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spark a memory of something they may
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want to speak to you about it's a great
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conversation starter and a great
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Icebreaker so let's dive in to the four
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conversation starting coffee table books
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now these are four different types of
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books and there are a lot of
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subcategories to these but we're going
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to talk about first books that are about
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personal interest so these are books
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that are of interest to you specifically
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they are things that maybe go along with
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your hobbies things that you love to
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look at that you could talk about for
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hours and hours and hours you already
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like it you have them in your home these
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are subjects and topics that you're
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passionate about these are the types of
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books that will really Drive
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conversation because you already know a
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lot about these topics and if someone
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comes into your home and they also share
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an interest in one of these books books
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you will instantly have a lot to talk
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about the types of books that I think of
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when I think of personal interest are
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Fashion sports interior
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architecture classic cars food I have a
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lot of personal interest books in my
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home like I mentioned I have the
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beautifully organized book from Nikki
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Boyd I also have another book called
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Beautiful Boards that is is all about
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these elaborate shakery board layouts I
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absolutely love sharing that with people
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the pictures are incredible and they
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come along with recipes and how to sort
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of set up each of these boards it's a
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really fantastic resource in general but
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the images and the Beautiful Rich color
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in those photographs is just stunning
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and it's a beautiful piece of work to
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look at I also happen to love elephants
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so I have um a whole book just on
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elephants and the photographs are
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spectacular um again this is a book
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where the images are large and colorful
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this one in particular I love because of
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the layout shifts inside of the book so
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you may have a single page image a
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double page image and then you may have
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like a 3/4 page image where the image of
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the elephant runs 3/4 of the way across
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the width of the book and I just think
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that this is very clever because it
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takes very careful binding to let that
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sort of line up really well and I just
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love it just as a piece of artwork I
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absolutely love that book the next type
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of conversation starting coffee table
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book are books about water weather or
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nature there are lots of books to choose
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from in this category and they are
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perfect because they are a common ground
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experiences it's sort of the how people
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always ask folks well how's the weather
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when they run out of things to say to a
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new person they start talking about the
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weather it's because it's a common
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ground that everyone has they can
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comment on oh it was stormy here or oh
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it was rainy here or oh there was
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traffic because of this or that and it's
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just something that everyone can talk
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about idly and so this is sort of a
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different way to approach that
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stormchaser books are really great
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because they have really amazing
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tornadoes and hurricanes and floods
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nature books that explore different
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forests and rainforest around the world
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there are um books just based on like
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Tundra and cold areas a spots that where
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you can see the Northern Lights and the
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auroras and the sky it's just an easy
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easy topic to brooch with anyone there's
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it's not a controversial area you're not
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um you know putting out books that are
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necessarily political that people may
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have strong opinions on this is weather
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this is something that everyone can talk
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about and be passionate about and just
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have an opinion on in general next up
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are this day in history books there are
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a lot of different series for the this
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day in history and a lot of different
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spin-offs but essentially what they are
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is there a book that's a collection of
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365 days and they are going to go
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through every single day and Spotlight
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something significant that happened in
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history on that day and these books are
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fun to flip through because people like
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to go through and look for their
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birthday like hey what happened on my
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birthday on this day in history what
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happened on my birthday or what happened
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on my anniversary or my kids' birthdays
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they're just a nice little interactive
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piece to flip through they don't usually
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have really beautiful
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illustrations um it's more of a
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text-based book but it is interesting to
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a lot of people because they can dive in
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and look for their own personal day and
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see what was going on at that time
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another type of history book that may be
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nice to have on display is one that deep
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dives into one a particular historical
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event I would just say be careful about
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the subject matter that you choose to
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have out on display because some things
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can be triggering to people but in
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general celebrations cultural events
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that are interesting to learn about are
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great so if you have a book about like
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Carnival or you have a book about a
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particular presidential inauguration
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those are cool to have on display that
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people can flip through um on your
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coffee table and last but not least our
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travel books people love to dream about
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vacations and visiting different places
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now you can have travel books that span
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like the seven wonders of the world or
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you can have more localized travel books
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that are uh like 50 states and 5,000
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ideas that's a really popular travel
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book it goes through every single state
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and shows you some of the highlights
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that you should visit in each state or
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you can go even more localized than that
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and just pick something for your state
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all of the places to see in your state
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you could do um a national parks guide
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that will show you around all of the
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different national parks in addition to
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National Parks you can always uh do a
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dive into a particular City so you can
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do a travel book just for Dallas or
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Houston or Las Vegas and it really dive
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deep into that City and highlight all
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the things that there are to do there I
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think that these are just really fun to
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look at and Spark interest in a lot of
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different people you'll also see these
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books in the um bucket list category
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right so I put them under travel but
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really bucket list tends to Encompass
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things that you should do and you should
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see so the thousand things to see before
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you die is a very popular series again
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this is not a book that is going to have
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really beautiful illustrations to look
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through instead it's going to be a
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little bit more text based but it's
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something that somebody can really sit
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down and flip through and go to topics
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that interest them and so before I go
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what I would say is that in addition to
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the coffee table books having little
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wooden games like Tic Tac te toe boards
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or little wooden puzzles on your coffee
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table is another great ice breaker and a
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way to engage guests because uh you know
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depending upon the age of your guest you
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may have someone that comes with kids
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and they may not be interested in the
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thousand places to see before you die
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book they may not be interested in this
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day in history book but they will be
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interested in a little tic tac toe game
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or a little puzzle game so just consider
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the age ranges that you may have in your
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home and try to have something of course
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you find something stylish find
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something that goes with your Decor I'm
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saying wooden because that usually just
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works with everyone to have a nice
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wooden tic TCT toe board but they have
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metallic ones they have ones that are
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made out of marble depending upon your
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style you can find something that works
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for you the only thing that I would say
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to stay away from is going to trendy
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with your coffee table styling now we
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all know that that Tom Ford coffee table
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book was like the only thing for a long
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time people were very excited about that
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book I don't know why but it was very
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popular and you see it everywhere it's
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all over Instagram and Pinterest but the
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fact of the matter is that's an
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outrageously expensive book and most
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people don't even have the real one they
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have either fake boxes that look like
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that book or they've covered it they've
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printed it and covered some other book
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and it's like having a fake book book or
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a fake coffee table book just for um
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trendy is a missed opportunity in my
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opinion because when people come to your
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home one they're either going to get
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excited about the book and want to flip
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through it and realize it's not what
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they think it is which is a let down or
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you know they could have had something
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like a beautiful book about penguins or
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about Antarctica or about you know
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classic cars or food or sh boards there
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are so many other things of interest to
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people that they can actually interact
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with that are affordable again don't
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forget that you don't have to buy all of
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these books coffee table books can be
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expensive especially when you get into
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the large like photography books they
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can be a little bit pricey but what you
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can always do is go to your library and
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check them out and keep them for a few
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weeks or keep them for a season renew
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them they're not in high demand so you
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can have them displayed out let's say
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for the better part of the spring and
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then when the summer rolls around you
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can exchange them and get something else
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and have something new out there for
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people to flip through you don't have to
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spend a lot of money decorating your
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home and investing in coffee table books
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there are other ways to go about it of
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course you can Thrift them as well but
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just consider the topics that you choose
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to share with people and let it be a
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tool that actually helps you when it
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comes to entertaining guests in your
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home because otherwise it's a missed
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opportunity and it's something that can
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be so great for building relationships
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and making people feel comfortable and
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at ease in your home that's it for this
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video I hope you found it helpful don't
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forget to visit me at diand decore.com I
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post all about home decorating ideas and
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inspiration over there if you like this
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video please give it a like and consider
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subscribing to my channel and I'll see
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you in the next one bye
