Author and illustrator David Macaulay has been publishing detailed hand-illustrated books since the 1970s, in which he meticulously documents the designing and building of everything from castles, mosques, pyramids and cathedrals to the functioning of specialized or mundane equipment ranging from electric guitars to dentist drills in How Things Work. While these books are designed for readers as young as 6, they also double as great coffee table books for all ages. I received several of these books as a child, and still enjoy thumbing through them decades later. Macaulay has even returned and updated some of his classic black-and-white books to add color, including Castle (shown) and Cathedral.