You're not likely to curl up in your bed with coffee-table books, but they still have a special place — with their combination of images and text and, yes, imposing size — for enthusiasts and book collectors.

INNER SPACE

The oceans cover more than two-thirds of the Earth, but few of us have much of an idea of what lies beneath the surface. Two gorgeous new books aim to change our understanding.

"Ocean Soul" by Brian Skerry (National Geographic Books, 268 pages, $50) combines stories of the sea — and of the art of capturing striking images in and on the sea — with a host of remarkable, frequently beautiful photographs. Skerry's aim is to share not only his photos, but to awaken others to the usually unseen wonders underwater and to the dangers they face.

Mark Laita's "Sea" (Abrams, 204 pages, $50), in contrast, takes its subjects out of their habitat and puts them into tanks for photographs that are at least as much art as natural science. Using a strobe light to capture sea creatures' natural colors with a black backdrop, and using their rippling reflections on the water's surface for added effect, Laita has taken exquisite, memorable images.

ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE

You don't have to be an art major to appreciate "The Louvre: All the Paintings" (text by Vincent Pomerade and Anja Grebe; Black Dog & Leventhal, 788 pages plus DVD and slipcase, $75); everyone from the well-versed to the newbie will find a wealth of masterful images and helpful commentary on every one of the Louvre's 3,022 paintings. You don't have to be a body builder to lift it, but if you really want to study the paintings you'll appreciate the accompanying DVD for more than its convenience. The book is a massive undertaking, in more ways than one, and the perfect gift for the art lover who doesn't have quite everything.

In 1911, Missouri's Capitol building was destroyed in a fire; the bonds issued to pay for the replacement allowed plenty of money to pay for decorating the new building — at more than $1 million, the artworks came to one quarter of its total cost. "The Art of the Missouri Capitol: History in Canvas, Bronze, and Stone" by Bob Priddy and Jeffrey Ball (University of Missouri Press, 416 pages, $49.95) tells the story of how architects, artists, politicians and well-connected citizens gave the state a Capitol considered one of the finest in the nation.

Everything you ever wanted to know (even if you didn't know you wanted to know it) about American Indian handicrafts can be found in "Arts and Crafts of the Native American Tribes" by Michael G. Johnson and Bill Yenne (Firefly, 260 pages, $49.95). Much more than a casual coffee table book, it's intended as a companion to "Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America," is divided by Indian cultural regions, explains why objects were made and how, and provides illustrations from maps and diagrams to historic photos. Not so much for the casual reader as for the truly interested, it provides a wealth of knowledge.

POPULAR CULTURE

In the days of Beatlemania, there were plenty of John girls (would-be intellectuals), Paul girls (going for the pretty face and winning smile) and Ringo girls (there was just something about that homely, lost-puppy look). George girls (soulful) were in shorter supply, but now they have something just for them. "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" by Olivia Harrison (edited by Mark Holborn; Abrams, 404 pages, $40) is filled with snapshots, letters, recollections and more from and about the "quiet Beatle." The history is tidied up, but the volume is perfect for the veteran Beatlemaniac who cherishes the myth.

Don't worry about text in "Vogue: the Covers" by Dodie Kazanjian (Abrams, 276 pages, $50). It's all about the pictures — and the clothes. Organized by decade, from the 1890s to the present, more than 300 arresting images track the changes of fashion and the changing images of American women.

A white volume adorned with a cheery Mickey Mouse is large even by coffee table-book standards, If it looks familiar, it should: Christopher Finch's "The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond" (Abrams, 508 pages, $98) was first published in 1973 and has been expanded and updated to celebrate the Disney company's 90th birthday. It now includes all the Disney — and Pixar — films since the '70s: brilliance like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "The Little Mermaid," the "Toy Story" movies and "WALL*E," as well as duds like "Tron: Legacy" and "Oliver and Company." It includes a 50-page piece of puffery on Disney's nonfilm properties, and not all of Finch's critical views are flawless (he likes what Disney did to Winnie-the-Pooh, and he still disses "Sleeping Beauty"), but this is — until the next edition — the last word on Disney.

HISTORY

Before Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, baseball celebrated figures like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. They and many others — including Ty Cobb, Hank Gowdy, Joe DiMaggio, Joe's big brother Vince and early Cardinals are captured in "The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon's Golden Age Baseball Photographs" (Abrams, 228 pages, $35). Conlon's black-and-white photos, taken from 1904 to 1942, depict the players, along with umpires, owners and one uncomfortable-looking New York cop.

Few American cities have as rich a soccer history as St. Louis. "Soccer Made in St. Louis" (Reedy Press, 208 pages, $35) by Dave Lange explains how the sport grew here, shows photos of its pioneers and recounts who made the famous 1950 World Cup team that defeated Britain.

"Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History 1513-2008" (Knopf, 516 pages, $50) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a one-volume exposition on the black experience in America from its beginnings in colonial Mexican slavery to the present day. Lavishly illustrated, it offers capsule biographies and glimpses of movements and events. Gates, a Harvard professor who has hosted several PBS series, isn't always completely careful with his facts (Barbara Harris, the first female bishop in the Episcopal Church, wasn't bishop of Massachusetts, but suffragen, a kind of assistant), but there's plenty of meat here, and good starting places for further investigations.

Department stores, offering big-city shoppers a single destination for everything from clothes to cosmetics to furniture to lunch, came to be in the mid-19th century, flourished for much of the 20th, and find themselves threatened in the 21st. Jan Whitaker's "The World of Department Stores" (Vendome Press, 268 pages, $60) offers a well-written, richly detailed and lavishly illustrated history of department stores, their architecture and their advertising around the world and over the years, shopping wonderlands that not even an Amazon.com can replace.

TRAINS AND CARS

Steam engines hold a fascination even in the jet age, and "Steam: An Enduring Legacy: The Railroad Photographs of Joel Jensen" (Norton, 164 pages, $50) documents that fascination through 150 grand and gritty black-and-white photographs shot in the American West over the past 25 years. The photos show the engines and cars, the landscapes through which they travel and the (usually grimy) men who work on them. This is a must for train buffs.

Some people dote on trains. Some admire even more the stations that were built for trains and their passengers. "America's Great Railroad Stations" (photographs by Roger Straus III, text by Ed Breslin and Hugh Van Dusen; Studio, 260 pages, $40) offers evocative photos of train stations great (Grand Central Station, various cities' Union Stations) and small (the North Conway, N.H., depot) and text that explores the history of each. There's a nice spread on St. Louis' Union Station, too.

Best-selling author Clive Cussler clearly does very well with his books. Now he's writing about his hobby in "Built for Adventure: The Classic Cars of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt" (Putnam, 240 pages, $50). Spanning 1906 (a Stanley Steamer Touring) to 1948 (Talbot-Lago Grand Sport Coupe), these cars tend to be long, low and decked with exotic hood ornaments. Lovingly photographed by Ronnie Bramhall, each auto-biography comes with a history of the car and brand, and an account of how Cussler acquired it.