Discussion on:

The color and shape of data

"Avant-garde tables should borrow a design element from TV dinner trays. Every modern console bound for a high-rise triplex needs a debossed compartment perfectly-sized to fit a prized coffee table book. "

It is possible to supply a coffee table with top sections that can be re-arranged to frame almost any book. Only some of the sections would be used at once. Under the seemingly seamless array of sections comprising the 1/2" thick tabletop, is an array of dense, hard-ish foam blocks, a certain number of which are removed to form the debossment for the book. The layer of 1.5" tall blocks (when a 2" thick book is to be used) is bounded by a band which rises up from the support plate, all around the perimiter. The support plate is the true steel bottom of the table, and the legs hold it up off the floor. Once the necessary blocks are removed, a layer of black or other cloth is laid on the blocks and the book placed snugly in the cavity, making the cloth fit the hole. The tabletop is then assembled in place leaving a suitable blank 'hole', which by design is arranged to always match the dimensions of the removed blocks when properly installed, and the top's own band, maybe some kind of barely stretchable polymer, or a spring, is placed around it. The top stays together well because its sections are made with slides, dowels and tenons so that the thing is in two halves which slide together. But it is not complicated. The unused top sections and extra foam blocks, other-colored cloths, all fit into a little shelf under the support plate. So there is this table, and a place for a book in it and a way to change the table with the book. Now, if you want to be mean, use taller foam blocks and drop a 1/2" thick piece of lexan in on top of the book.. no fingerprints on that book.

Thanks for the tip, opcom!